I was born in Lancaster on Oct. 16, 1935, to Esther M. Sprout and Albert H. Gingrich. We lived in Green Hill near Conestoga, and I spent many wonderful summers with my Grandma Daisy Mae Sprout in Mount Joy. I attended one-room schools and the Millersville Model School, where I won the geography bee, and my teacher took me for an airplane ride over our house. When our family moved to Wormleysburg, I attended West Shore Joint High School in Lemoyne and worked at the soda fountain at Caplan’s Drug Store on Market Square in Harrisburg. This is where I met and fell in love with a Steelton boy, John “Tom” Lively. As the song goes, “They tried to tell us we’re too young,” but on the morning of June 5, 1953, we eloped to Hagerstown. We were married in the preacher’s living room, and Tom’s ’39 Chevy somehow got us home for my graduation that night.
Tom worked in the electrical department at the Steelton Mill, and I, on the switchboard at the Bell Telephone. After he was drafted and served two years in the Army, we left Steelton for Harrisburg and eventually worked together at Riverside Electric. We loved leading the youth fellowship at Rockville U.M.C., and I rolled hundreds of chocolate eggs through the years with our many friends at Hope Presbyterian Church and Zion Lutheran Church in Dauphin, where we built our home together on Peter’s Mountain. Our son Henri was born in 1971, and after he was in school, I worked various jobs, my favorite as a classroom instructional aide at Sara Lindenmuth Elementary, where I truly loved working with the children until my retirement in 2000.
Tom and I were thrilled when Henri married Kerry Eileen Freisen of Hershey, and we soon became “Nana and Grandpa” to Molly Anne, Ian Timothy, and Emma Clare Lively, eventually moving to Annville to enjoy many of their school activities. I loved reading, watching nature on the mountain, picking up shells on the beach, having our dear friends in, and getting all of my family together for home-cooked dinners whenever possible.
My Tom went before me in 2019 after 65 wonderful years of marriage. I loved the life we made together. A form of memory loss, probably Alzheimer’s, soon stole my ability to share most of my memories, but they live “forever and a day” in the twinkle of my eye.
My sister, M. Jean (Gingrich) Moore, and her husband, Ken, live in Arkansas near my niece, Sherry Stout (Jeff), and her family (Joey, Katie, and Ben). My brother, Albert Gingrich, lives in Liverpool with his wife, Sue (Janelle and Azure). My brothers, J. Warren (Bev) and Joe Gingrich (Lily), both passed before me, leaving behind my wonderful nephew, Keith (Sue), and niece, Autumn. My nephews, Stephen (Helen and son, Max) and Jonathan (Anne) Gingrich, live near Seattle. My niece, Amy (Lively) Langford, and nephew, Andrew Lively, live near Houston, along with nephew, Milo Grika. My niece, Jordana Grika Capra, lives in Los Angeles.
The Lively family is grateful to the staff of Linden Village in Lebanon and to the entire family of care at UCC The Lebanon Valley Home in Annville for their generosity of care and support.
A gravesite memorial service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 11 a.m., in the Chapel at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens, 4855 Londonderry Road, Harrisburg, when Sandy and Tom will be interred together. Memorial contributions may be made to the United Church of Christ Homes Benevolent Fund, ucc-homes.org, and to Friends of the Annville Free Library.
