Sarah Weems Lawton

Sarah Parker Weems Lawton, known as Sally, died peacefully Wednesday, February 1, 2017, at Canterbury Court, an Episcopal retirement center in Atlanta, where she'd lived for several years. She was 97.



Sally was born October 11, 1919, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the daughter of Bessie Turner and Dr. Julius Alexander Parker. After her parents divorced, her mother moved with her and her older brother Jay to Canton to teach school and to be near Bessie's sister and brother-in-law, Pearl T. and Louis L. Jones, who were like second parents to Sally and Jay. The children's first cousins Sarah, Turner, and Peggy, became virtual siblings to Sally.



Sally attended college in Montevallo, Alabama, and then Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia, majoring in music, before attending Agnes Scott College in Decatur.



During World War II, Sally worked with the U.S. Army's Public Relations Office in the Quartermaster Center in Atlanta, and then served as an American Red Cross staff assistant in Europe. She was stationed in Southampton, England, until the end of the war, when she married Army Lt. Julian Townsend Weems, at the American Cathedral in Paris on May 30, 1945, three weeks after V-E Day. After the war, the couple moved to Atlanta and adopted their infant daughter, Sarah Clayton, in 1949. Julian Weems died in 1952.In 1954, Sally married Spencer Lawton, who had moved to Atlanta from his hometown of Savannah, and she became mother to his sons, Spencer Jr. and George. After Spencer Sr.'s death in 1999, Sally moved to Canterbury Court.



Sally, who started her own interior design business, had an artistic bent. She took painting classes at the Atlanta College of Art, the High Museum of Art, and Georgia State University. She especially enjoyed oil painting classes at the home of her good friend, Selma Beard, and loved playing bridge with friends.



Sally was a member of the Junior League of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art Central Committee, Piedmont Hospital Auxiliary, Egleston Children's Hospital Auxiliary, and the Society of Colonial Dames, serving as Gunston Hall Chairman for the Atlanta Town Committee. She was an active member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, serving for many years on the Altar Guild and the Flower

Committee.



Sally is survived by her daughter, Clayton Livingston (Lorton Jr., deceased) of Savannah; sons Spencer Lawton Jr. (Ann Woolner) of Savannah and George Lawton (Betty Neel) of Marietta; grandchildren John Livingston and Corinne Livingston of Atlanta, Sarah Lawton Brockenbrough (Will) of Lowesville, Virginia, Beth Lawton McGee (David) of Marietta, and George Lawton Jr. (Anne) of Birmingham; great-grandchildren Mary Cobb McGee and Lawton McGee of Marietta, Caroline Lawton, Robert Lawton and William Lawton of Birmingham; and many nieces and nephews. Sally also leaves behind her beloved first cousins, Sarah Jones Cheatham, Turner Jones, and Peggy Jones Smith.



A graveside service will be held at 2 o\'clock Tuesday afternoon, February 7, 2017, at the graveside, Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.



Memorial donations may be made to St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta.