Sarah Gay Lanford, 90, of Lexington, Va., died Monday, June 25, 2018 at her residence.

She was born June 9, 1928, in Amherst, Virginia, daughter of James William Gay and Mary Cartmell Drummond Gay.

Sarah grew up on the family farm in Amherst and attended Sweet Briar College, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and a passion for women's education and empowerment.

After graduate study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she moved to Lexington and took a job as a social worker with the Welfare Department, now the Department of Social Services. Caring for the socially and economically underprivileged, whether in a professional or volunteer capacity, was her life's calling. In the 1970s, she and others concerned about the lack of an economic safety net for those living on the margins created the Rockbridge Area Relief Association.

She continued to volunteer for RARA for the next several decades as a volunteer phone screener, connecting callers with the assistance they needed. Sarah centered much of her talent and prodigious energy around Grace Episcopal Church, where she had been a member since the 1950s. In addition to serving many terms on the church's vestry, where she was by turns both junior and senior warden, she was a member of the Episcopal Church Women and the Altar Guild. For many years, she chaired the church's annual Plum Pudding fundraiser and arranged the flowers on the altar each week.

She also served on the Gadsden committee, a special fund for non-recurring expenses in the community and the diocese; the mission and outreach committee; and the property committee. Perhaps her best-known work, though, was chairing the church's Mission Emergency Fund for over three decades. This fund, which provides for a variety of emergency needs throughout the Rockbridge area, was renamed the Lanford Mission Emergency Fund in 2014 in her honor.

Sarah did not confine her humanitarian interests to the Rockbridge area alone. In the 1990s she was a board member of the Jackson-Feild Home in Jarratt, Va., a residential facility for girls. She was also an enthusiastic supporter of Boys' Home in Covington.

Flowers and gardening were her passions. She was a longtime member of the Natural Bridge Garden Club and was always happy to advise others on their planting selections. She won numerous awards at horticulture shows for the flowers she grew at her home in Meadowview.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a sister, Virginia Gay Brignall.

She is survived by two daughters, Sarah Lanford Myers of Concord, Mass., and Mary Lanford Price of Fairfield, Va.; four grandchildren, Steven Myers of Boston, Mass., Elizabeth Myers of Syracuse, N.Y., Virginia Price and Elaine Price, both of Fairfield; and a niece, Mary Gay Brignall of North Fort Myers, Fla.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 30, 2018, at 11 a.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, Lexington, Virginia. Burial will be private. There will be no visitation at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Lanford Mission Emergency Fund, Grace Episcopal Church, 123 W. Washington Street, Lexington, VA 24450 or RARA, P. O. Box 640, Lexington, VA 24450.

Arrangements are by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory.