Sara Elizabeth LaMonica died peacefully on September 2, 2020, in Valley Park, Missouri. Sara was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, the first child of Joe and Betty LaMonica. Two more children arrived – brother Kim and sister Toni. The family moved from Ohio, to Pennsylvania, Chicago and St. Louis, following Joe’s career in railroading.

After attending Penn State and Illinois State Universities, Sara found her talent and skill in retail merchandising. She worked in two of St. Louis’s large department stores as a buyer. In her work, she traveled frequently to New York, a city she loved.

Sara’s home was in Shrewsbury, Missouri. She loved her apartment, its gardens and her dogs. She also loved travel to Los Angeles to visit her brother and his family, to Detroit to visit her parents, and to Hanover, New Hampshire to visit her sister and family. Among her favorite places in St. Louis were the Italian grocery stores and restaurants on the Hill and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Sara is survived by her brother, Kim, his wife, Denis Foley, their children Sophia and Joe, and grandson, Otis, and by her sister, Toni, and husband, Larry Young. She is also survived by Pam Will, who became her closest friend in St. Louis. With gifts of love and attention to Sara and warm welcomes to our bicoastal family, Pam and her husband, Jerry, became our home base in St. Louis., and have been an enormous comfort to our family.

The family wants to thank Big Bend Woods Healthcare for its care and compassion to Sara, with a special note of thanks to Beth Perry whose generous use of an iPad brought us together with Sara.

We grieve her loss.