Sally Margaret Barros, treasured wife and mother, died on April 23, 2022, at the age of 62.
Sally was born on April 4, 1960, in Oakland, the fifth girl of Eileen Reddy and William G. Barros, who by then was crossing his fingers for a boy. Instead, he willed the tomboy into Sally, taking her to A's and Raiders games and cultivating a love of Bay Area sports that endured throughout her life.
Sally attended MIT in 1978, when women comprised less than 20 percent of undergraduates. She shed her teenage conservatism the first time she attended a lecture by Noam Chomsky, whom she befriended throughout her life. In an act of protest against U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua, she once graffitied a Boston highway billboard to read "If you lived in Managua, you'd be dead by now."
She spent her 20s as a reporter covering the wars in Central America, seeing several colleagues killed. In 1990, she returned to the Bay Area, received an M.A. in International Studies from U.C. Berkeley, and met the father of her two children, Emilio Rivano Fischer. They moved to Sweden in the early 90s, where she joined Emilio's family and learned Swedish and Japanese at Lund University. She gave birth to her son, Joe, and her daughter, Linnea, in Lund. The four moved to Emilio's birth country, Chile, and lived there for six years before returning to the Bay Area in 2000.
She worked as a planner and sustainability manager for the City of San Leandro for 18 years, kickstarting the city's sustainability efforts and inspiring many in local government to take climate change seriously.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with stage four renal cancer and given 11 months to live. Instead of succumbing to the disease, she thrived, retiring early and breaking personal records for global travel. The California redwoods remained her favorite.
In the summer of 2021, after a diagnosis of brain metastases and an unsuccessful course of radiation, she chose to enter hospice at home. She spent the next eight months seeing dozens of friends, watching Jeopardy! every weeknight, and feeding the neighborhood's chickadees. She passed away in her bed, surrounded by family. Her husband, son, and daughter are left behind, alongside her brother, William Taylor, and three sisters, Ann, Mary, and Paula.
Published by San Francisco Chronicle on May 6, 2022.
Sally was born on April 4, 1960, in Oakland, the fifth girl of Eileen Reddy and William G. Barros, who by then was crossing his fingers for a boy. Instead, he willed the tomboy into Sally, taking her to A's and Raiders games and cultivating a love of Bay Area sports that endured throughout her life.
Sally attended MIT in 1978, when women comprised less than 20 percent of undergraduates. She shed her teenage conservatism the first time she attended a lecture by Noam Chomsky, whom she befriended throughout her life. In an act of protest against U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua, she once graffitied a Boston highway billboard to read "If you lived in Managua, you'd be dead by now."
She spent her 20s as a reporter covering the wars in Central America, seeing several colleagues killed. In 1990, she returned to the Bay Area, received an M.A. in International Studies from U.C. Berkeley, and met the father of her two children, Emilio Rivano Fischer. They moved to Sweden in the early 90s, where she joined Emilio's family and learned Swedish and Japanese at Lund University. She gave birth to her son, Joe, and her daughter, Linnea, in Lund. The four moved to Emilio's birth country, Chile, and lived there for six years before returning to the Bay Area in 2000.
She worked as a planner and sustainability manager for the City of San Leandro for 18 years, kickstarting the city's sustainability efforts and inspiring many in local government to take climate change seriously.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with stage four renal cancer and given 11 months to live. Instead of succumbing to the disease, she thrived, retiring early and breaking personal records for global travel. The California redwoods remained her favorite.
In the summer of 2021, after a diagnosis of brain metastases and an unsuccessful course of radiation, she chose to enter hospice at home. She spent the next eight months seeing dozens of friends, watching Jeopardy! every weeknight, and feeding the neighborhood's chickadees. She passed away in her bed, surrounded by family. Her husband, son, and daughter are left behind, alongside her brother, William Taylor, and three sisters, Ann, Mary, and Paula.
Published by San Francisco Chronicle on May 6, 2022.
Sally Margaret Barros, treasured wife and mother, died on April 23, 2022, at the age of 62.
Sally was born on April 4, 1960, in Oakland, the fifth girl of Eileen Reddy and William G. Barros, who by then was crossing his fingers for a boy. Instead, he willed the tomboy into Sally, taking her to A's and Raiders games and cultivating a love of Bay Area sports that endured throughout her life.
Sally attended MIT in 1978, when women comprised less than 20 percent of undergraduates. She shed her teenage conservatism the first time she attended a lecture by Noam Chomsky, whom she befriended throughout her life. In an act of protest against U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua, she once graffitied a Boston highway billboard to read "If you lived in Managua, you'd be dead by now."
She spent her 20s as a reporter covering the wars in Central America, seeing several colleagues killed. In 1990, she returned to the Bay Area, received an M.A. in International Studies from U.C. Berkeley, and met the father of her two children, Emilio Rivano Fischer. They moved to Sweden in the early 90s, where she joined Emilio's family and learned Swedish and Japanese at Lund University. She gave birth to her son, Joe, and her daughter, Linnea, in Lund. The four moved to Emilio's birth country, Chile, and lived there for six years before returning to the Bay Area in 2000.
She worked as a planner and sustainability manager for the City of San Leandro for 18 years, kickstarting the city's sustainability efforts and inspiring many in local government to take climate change seriously.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with stage four renal cancer and given 11 months to live. Instead of succumbing to the disease, she thrived, retiring early and breaking personal records for global travel. The California redwoods remained her favorite.
In the summer of 2021, after a diagnosis of brain metastases and an unsuccessful course of radiation, she chose to enter hospice at home. She spent the next eight months seeing dozens of friends, watching Jeopardy! every weeknight, and feeding the neighborhood's chickadees. She passed away in her bed, surrounded by family. Her husband, son, and daughter are left behind, alongside her brother, William Taylor, and three sisters, Ann, Mary, and Paula.
Published by San Francisco Chronicle on May 6, 2022.
Sally was born on April 4, 1960, in Oakland, the fifth girl of Eileen Reddy and William G. Barros, who by then was crossing his fingers for a boy. Instead, he willed the tomboy into Sally, taking her to A's and Raiders games and cultivating a love of Bay Area sports that endured throughout her life.
Sally attended MIT in 1978, when women comprised less than 20 percent of undergraduates. She shed her teenage conservatism the first time she attended a lecture by Noam Chomsky, whom she befriended throughout her life. In an act of protest against U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua, she once graffitied a Boston highway billboard to read "If you lived in Managua, you'd be dead by now."
She spent her 20s as a reporter covering the wars in Central America, seeing several colleagues killed. In 1990, she returned to the Bay Area, received an M.A. in International Studies from U.C. Berkeley, and met the father of her two children, Emilio Rivano Fischer. They moved to Sweden in the early 90s, where she joined Emilio's family and learned Swedish and Japanese at Lund University. She gave birth to her son, Joe, and her daughter, Linnea, in Lund. The four moved to Emilio's birth country, Chile, and lived there for six years before returning to the Bay Area in 2000.
She worked as a planner and sustainability manager for the City of San Leandro for 18 years, kickstarting the city's sustainability efforts and inspiring many in local government to take climate change seriously.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with stage four renal cancer and given 11 months to live. Instead of succumbing to the disease, she thrived, retiring early and breaking personal records for global travel. The California redwoods remained her favorite.
In the summer of 2021, after a diagnosis of brain metastases and an unsuccessful course of radiation, she chose to enter hospice at home. She spent the next eight months seeing dozens of friends, watching Jeopardy! every weeknight, and feeding the neighborhood's chickadees. She passed away in her bed, surrounded by family. Her husband, son, and daughter are left behind, alongside her brother, William Taylor, and three sisters, Ann, Mary, and Paula.
Published by San Francisco Chronicle on May 6, 2022.
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