Sallie Parson Haywood

Sallie Tod Parson Haywood, age 79, was set free from her body on January 16th, 2025, near her home in Delray Beach, Florida. Born on March 25, 1945, to Donald Parson Jr and Helen Morgan Andrews in Miami, Florida, her two adoring children survive her, Andrew Morgan Haywood and Rebecca Parson Haywood, and her former spouse, Jon Vanderford Haywood.

Sallie was gifted with a vibrant life, much like her cherished gardens. Throughout it, she lived up and down the East Coast and beyond. Her younger years were lavished on St Thomas where riding her island horse “Tabor” on the beach was her greatest joy, along with ‘almost’ learning to play the steel drums. Her summers were spent on The Cape enjoying time with her sisters Maria and Jane, and her favorite cousin, Joey. She found her passion for sailing through her lessons with Uncle Fred on the cat boat, Night Bird. The family took many summer trips to The Point in Brooklin, Maine, where Sallie fell in love with the smell of pine trees and delighted in outings aboard the family sailboat, Freya. 

Her schooling was at Chatham Hall and, later, Bradford College, where her cousin Charlie Hunt from Harvard would often pick her up for wild nights in Boston. She always liked to brag about her time as a lacrosse goalie, as no one else wanted the position. 

The family relocated to NYC in the early '60s, where her parents’ best friend, Goldie Hawkins, owned the nightclubs “Goldies” on 53rd Street and on Fire Island, where Sallie worked for a time. This is where she developed her love for music and dance, specifically Fred Astaire and Ethel Merman. In her twenties, she ventured to the east side of New York City, living in a five-story walk-up while working at Tiffany’s. Her German Shepard, Ivan, was her second true animal love. She might have forever extended her trip to Greece if it were not for his car-chasing terrors at her family’s home in Maryland, where he earned the nickname ‘Ivan the Terrible.’ 

She always liked to playfully “tune her violin” about her tough childhood after referring to her many coveted stomping grounds.

Winding up in Boston, she enjoyed being a travel agent for the great perk of exploring the world. Destiny would soon strike, and Jon, a friend of George and Cornie Parson, became acquaintances with Sallie. After one very chilly stay in Nova Scotia to visit her lifelong friend Rita Rhinelander-Fowler, Jon and Sallie took it to the next level to ‘keep warm.’

In 1971, they were married and lived a short time in Watertown Square. After Cornie passed, they moved to his wonderful old brick home adjacent to the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, to care for his nine prize-winning corgis. Soon, their home would welcome the birth of Andrew and Rebecca, along with several Newfoundlands and one ornery goat.

Years later, she settled in Lexington, Massachusetts, with the kids and her beloved Newfoundland, Oopaloo. She made a life for herself and her children as an artist with her painted needlepoint designs, intricate beaded flowers, and Macramé textiles. She continued to be quite the athlete with racquetball, tennis, swimming, and running. She was also an avid gamester, happily taking other ladies' money at poker and backgammon. Later in her career, she found her lifelong calling as a Muscle Therapist, saving thousands of people’s bad backs. Truly, she was a dedicated healer.

She continued the tradition of summer stays in Maine with the kids. Hauling them up in her station wagon, sometimes in the middle of the night, just to get every minute they could in their moss-lined playground. The family camp in Sedgwick, Maine, was their favorite for the nights of charades by lamplight and forever days of playing on Walker’s Pond. Sallie became an adept windsurfer with her dog, Nutmeg, who happily rode on the bow. Later, her father built “El Bunco,” a small bunkhouse in the woods just down the dirt road from The Point. The three sisters and all the cousins, Alexandra, Andrew, Rebecca, Ann, and Rachel, shared its modest roof, full of joy, games, crafts, and fine meals. Sallie proudly became captain of her own Herreshoff sailboat, which she named Sowelu after a Viking rune, meaning “Let the Sun shine in.”

Sallie was a quietly spiritual woman; in her own words, “Mother Nature was her friend in life, her support, joy, and peace, and her place of healing.” Whether it was her collection of crystals adorning her plant-filled windowsills or the hand-selected boulders that she hauled down from Maine in her station wagon to build her masterpiece stone wall in Lexington, Sallie was a devotee of Mother Nature and a skilled craftswoman. Her stone wall still stands today.

In her later years, she moved to Delray Beach, Florida, with her Golden Retriever “Emma” and cat “Leo” to be closer to her father. She spent her days in her beloved “Buddha Garden” surrounded by her favorites, orchids and butterflies, which she affectionately called “flutter flies” for their “all so momentary moments of joy.” 

As she reflected on her life, she credited the many adoring animals along her journey as a source of “warmth and understanding of all her thoughts and feelings” …and perfectly timed snuggles. She even developed her own language with which she lovingly spoke to all her animals. She brought that same warmth and understanding to her beloved children and cherished friends.

Indeed, she led life with a generous heart and an unwavering dedication to her family. She will be greatly missed and celebrated for the Sun she let shine in our hearts and the all-too-momentary moments of joy she brought us all.

A memorial service will be held at her family camp in Sedgewick, Maine this coming summer, date to be announced.

Instead of flowers, gifts, or planting a tree, please donate to her favorite non-profit, The Nature Conservancy, which has recently taken up the cause to protect her beloved “flutter flies.”