Elsie Cory Sadler, a longtime senior warden of All Saints Church in Pasadena and a former vice president of development at Huntington Memorial Hospital, died Feb. 6 in La Quinta, Calif., where was staying with her daughter Peggy Buchanan after being evacuated from MonteCedro during the Eaton fire in early January.
Survivors include Sadler’s daughters Peggy, Jenny and Emily Buchanan (Raymond Ritchie); her stepsons, Tom (Eila Skinner), John and David Sadler; and stepdaughter, Carolyn (Jamie Kyne); 15 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren; beloved nieces and nephews; and many friends. Sadler’s daughter Rebeccah and husband, John, predeceased her.
Donations in Sadler’s memory can be made to Young and Healthy or to All Saints Church, where a memorial service was held April 12.
In addition to her leadership at All Saints, Sadler was active with numerous organizations including the Junior League, the Gooden Center, the Pasadena Symphony, the Sophie Miller Foundation, and Episcopal Communities and Services.
In 2009, with Susan Long, Sadler began the Pasadena Festival of Women Authors, which is still sold out annually. She also acted in many national television commercials. In 2011 she was named the Star News/Rose Magazine Woman of the Year.
In the mid-1970s, Sadler began working full-time at Huntington Memorial Hospital as volunteer coordinator, retiring some 20 years later as vice-president of development.
Elsie Rose Cory was born to British immigrants to Waukegan, Illinois, in 1928,
After graduating from Monmouth College, Elsie and her husband, Robert “Buck” Howard Buchanan, lived in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming before settling in San Marino, Calif. in the late 1950s. They moved to South Pasadena in 1965.
In 1983, Sadler married John Marsh Sadler and grew close to his four children and to his grandchildren, and he to hers. She officiated at five family weddings.