Vashon activist Sally Fox, 62, fought for ferry service

The landmark Hardware Store Restaurant on the main highway through the commercial heart of rural Vashon Island put up a 12-foot banner the day after island resident Sally Fox died.

And for the past several days, island residents have been stopping by to place messages of respect and affection, along with photos, on the banner, which reads: "In Loving Memory of Sally Fox."

It has become a memorial, for her, her family and her community. That banner will be present for all to see at a service to celebrate her life at 3 p.m. Nov. 18 at Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church, 1217 Sixth Ave.

Sally Willinger Fox died Oct. 26 at her Vashon home, comforted by her husband, Michael; son Brendan Fox, of Tucson, Ariz.; and daughter Kelly Fox, a UW graduate-school student in Seattle. Mrs. Fox, 62, had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer three years ago.

On Vashon Island, she was known for her efforts to maintain passenger-only ferry service between the island and Seattle. In Seattle, she was known for her expertise in crafting the city's benefits program for domestic partners of city employees. And she was known for community activism.

Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, she spent her early years in Bogotá, where her father was a pilot, until his death in a plane collision in 1953. The family later moved to Crozet, Va.

After graduation from St. Anne's School in Charlottesville, Va., and Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., where she earned an undergraduate degree in Russian history in 1967, she worked four years in Washington, D.C., as a staff member on the President's Council on Youth Opportunity, processing grants for youth programs around the country, including Seattle.

At age 27, she moved to Seattle and three years later married Michael J. Fox, a young labor and civil-rights attorney. Mrs. Fox devoted more than three decades to public service, most of the first decade enforcing federal civil-rights legislation in public schools for the Office of Civil Rights in the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

She later became the city of Seattle's employee-benefits manager, until illness forced her retirement two years ago. During her career, she also returned to school to earn a master's degree in public administration from the University of Washington in 1977.

"Her proudest professional achievement was her work in implementing equal benefits for the domestic partners of city employees and proving that it was a cost-effective endeavor for employers to undertake," her husband said.

Seattle was the second municipality in the nation to adopt domestic-partner employee benefits, and Mrs. Fox became a nationally recognized authority, lending expertise to other cities, including New York City.

She also was instrumental in implementing Seattle's no-smoking policy within city facilities, according to her husband, now a King County Superior Court judge.

He said she was committed to issues of social and civil rights and was actively involved in local and state Democratic politics. She also engaged in neighborhood issues, he said, and was active for years in the Mount Baker Community Club and later the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council.

The Foxes were Mount Baker residents for more than a quarter-century before she and her husband, as empty-nesters, moved to a rural waterfront house on Vashon Island eight years ago.

When Vashon residents faced massive cuts in public-transportation funding a few years back, she was at the forefront of a public campaign to protect and expand state-operated passenger-only ferry service to the island.

Mike Sudduth, a King County budget analyst and Vashon native, hailed Mrs. Fox as "the catalyst that united people here on the island, and regionally" in the community campaign to preserve ferry service.

"She got everybody — state legislators, the head of the ferry system and the head of the unions, as well as our local community leaders — to the table," he said. "The service is still running today."

In preparing her own obituary, she described herself as outspoken, stubborn, forever loyal and a lousy cook. "As a result, I did all the cooking in the house," her husband said.

Her dog, Kuma, which she called "Vashon's best-behaved golden retriever," was her near-constant companion during her illness.

At her request, cremation has been performed. The family plans to spread her remains in Quartermaster Harbor, near the family's Vashon home, and also in a Virginia cemetery next to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Remembrances may be made to the American Cancer Society or Providence Hospice Foundation.