Sara Marie Pope Lewallen passed away August 20, 2007, after a long bout of Alzheimer’s disease and a short bout of pneumonia. She donated her brain tissue and eyes to Duke Neurological Clinic in Durham for research.
Sara was born April 19, 1932, to Walter Colquitt and Louise Harwell Pope in Porterdale, GA. She grew up in Porterdale and Covington with a pet goat and attended high school in Atlanta, GA, where she spent many an hour at the Varsity Drive-In. After the family moved to Miami, Florida, Sara attended the University of Miami, earning a Master’s Degree in Physical Education. She met her husband of 25 years, Dale Morgan Lewallen, a budding Industrial Efficiency Engineer, at University Baptist Church in Coral Gables, FL, where she started her leadership career in the Baptist Student Union and Young Women’s Association.
After marrying Dale, the couple moved to Jackson, Alabama. She taught school in neighboring Leroy until her first son, Walter, was born. The family then moved to Monroeville, AL, where she bore three more children over the next four years.
The family moved to Batesville, MS, in 1965 where Sara served as the Women’s Missionary Union President for the State of Mississippi. When the family moved to Greenville, SC, in 1969, Sara taught Physical Education at Sevier Junior High/Middle School and was active in the WMU at Lee Road Baptist Church, the Coral Ridge Garden Club and square dancing where she met many lifelong friends.
Sara’s concern for her children’s education came first when Dale got a new position in Siler City, NC, so she waited until the children were at opportune places in school before moving to join her husband.
In Siler City, Sara found her dream life of making her six acres self-sustaining by raising bees, rabbits and goats, planting fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and hundreds of flower species in her nursery, aptly named Random Twit. There she cared for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s, for 12 years, until Louise died at the home. Sara continued her work for missions at Hickory Mountain Baptist Church and helped start Joy Baptist Church in Silk Hope. She volunteered at the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill and the NCSU JC Raulston Arboretum. She sold goat cheese and lotus flowers as well as her other beautiful plants and shrubs at the Chapel Hill Farmers Market and helped organize a Tuesday market in Carrboro.
As Sara began to feel the onset of dementia, she strengthened her memory by calling all of her plants by their botanical names and collecting books — the classics, poetry and romance novels. She survived a ruptured intracranial aneurysm in 2000 and her loyal son Jason cared for her for 7 years in her beloved home where all who visited were treated as family or friend.
Sara is survived by her sister Mary Fairweather of San Diego, CA, her two brothers James Pope of Jacksonville, FL and Robert Pope of Owensboro, KY, her former husband Dale of Andalusia, AL, their four children Walter (Red Springs, NC), Katherine Morgan (Cosby, TN), Jason (Siler City, NC), and Mark (Chapel Hill, NC), and her two grandchildren, Jacob and Sadie Lewallen (Siler City, NC).
A memorial service will be held Oct. 21 at the NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill (Totten Center) at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Sara for the preservation of Random Twit Nursery, c/o Mark or Walter Lewallen, State Employees Credit Union, Carrboro, NC branch.