Sarah Celeste Trezevant Stallworth Sebrell was born on October 1, 1951, and the world became a better place.

Sallie died on June 21, 2019, after a valiant 18-month battle with multiple myeloma, a disorder caused by our toxic chemical environment she fought so hard to cleanse. She approached this last fight with the same resolve and determination she brought to her work on behalf of Virginia's environment.

Born and raised in Charleston, S.C., Sallie graduated from Ashley Hall in Charleston and Mary Baldwin College in Staunton.

As her husband John's work took them to cities across Virginia, including Lynchburg, Roanoke, Hampton, Suffolk and Lexington, Sallie embraced them all and implemented multiple community projects.

During the 1980s, she served as president of the Lynchburg Historical Foundation and she began her work with the Conservation Council of Virginia, a predecessor organization of the Virginia Conservation Network. Former VCN President Martha Wingfield noted, "Sallie was actively engaged with VCN, serving as a board member for over 15 years and was an effective advocate for an environmental agenda that helped protect Virginia's water, air, wilderness, and other natural resources."

In 2008, Sallie was part of the "Green Team" which received the VCN's Blue Ridge Award, "Presented to individuals who help focus public attention on environmental issues and who exemplify the cooperative spirit of The Virginia Conservation Network," for their work in saving public participation in the environmental permitting process.

While living in Hampton in the early 1990s, Sallie was named Volunteer of the Year by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Sallie was a member of the Garden Club of Virginia since 1981. It was through the GCV that Sallie began her work in conservation. She may hold the record for belonging to the most GVC clubs! In each community, she worked tirelessly on her club's annual Garden Day during Garden Week every spring. While living in Suffolk, she and her dear friend Dana Adams led the Nansemond River Garden Club’s renovation of the historic city's only downtown green space, Cedar Hill Cemetery. A scatter garden for human ashes, plantings, benches, and a heritage garden were added, beautifying that area. The project received the prestigious Common Wealth Award of the Garden Club of Virginia and was a Legacy Project of America's 400th Anniversary. With the help of the project committee, Cedar Hill Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.

In 2011, Sallie was awarded the Garden Club of Virginia's DeLacy Grey Memorial Medal for Conservation which recognizes "outstanding effort to further the knowledge of our natural resources and to encourage their wise use."

One of Sallie's primary concerns was the adverse effects that pesticides and herbicides can have on plants and animals. She traveled the state giving presentations to garden clubs about the dangers of pesticides to humans and wildlife. For several years in the early 2000s Sallie served as a member of the President's Advisory Council of the National Wildlife Federation. Former NWF President and Chief Executive Officer Larry J. Schweiger noted, "America has lost a tireless environmental champion. Stemming from her childhood love of nature, Sallie Sebrell was a persuasive, courageous, and outspoken force for the Chesapeake Bay, for climate change solutions, and for the protection of nature. Her life is an inspiration for so many Virginians who share her passion and were a part of her life's work."

Her farsighted concern for the effects of climate change developed long before it became a mainstream issue. In the early 2000s, Sallie helped to develop a climate change talk that she presented to garden clubs around Virginia (and in her mother's hometown of St. Matthews, S.C.). In September 2014, she and John joined the People’s Climate March in New York City. Sallie truly walked the walk – in New York, during the 2017 and 2019 Women's Marches in Washington, DC, and against the purveyors of hate and racism in August 2017 in Charlottesville. In 2011, she and John moved to Lexington, after a five-year effort renovating an historic Georgian building on Main Street. She served Lexington as a member of the Architectural Review Board.

As important as her environmental work was, her family was her base and her kitchen her command post. When she spent weeks in the hospital with her bone marrow transplant, she missed standing in her kitchen, fixing those delicious dinners and cakes and pies and cookies the most.

Sallie is survived by her husband of 45 years, John G. Sebrell; her daughter, Trez Sebrell; her son, Tom Sebrell (Aga); her grandchildren, Celie Holmes, James Sebrell, and John Sebrell; brothers, Jim (Peggy) and Hank (Ann Nolte) Stallworth; brother-in-law, Tom Sebrell (Penny); and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her parents, Anne and Manly Stallworth.

The family wishes to thank Dr. Kelly Davidson, Dr. Kindwall-Keller, and Dr. Julio D. Silvestre for leading the numerous doctors and residents, interns, medical students, nurses, and patient care assistants and for their compassionate professionalism and care during the past 18 months and to Rockbridge Area Hospice.

Memorials may be made to the Rockbridge Area Conservation Council (P. O. Box 564, Lexington, VA, 24450 www.rockbridgeconservation.org) and The Meadow (959 Ross Road, Lexington, VA 24450 themeadowlexva@gmail.com).

Sallie's email messages contained this, most appropriate, closing: "Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform." - Susan B. Anthony.

A celebration of Sallie's life will be held Monday, August 19, 2019 at 11 a.m. at the Irving Estate, House Mountain Inn, Lexington.

Arrangements are by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory.