Sally Curtis – A Tribute

Sally Curtis

A Tribute by Alan José FICCM

In our Industry over the years many people's names have become synonymous with the Crematorium or Cemetery at which they worked and this was certainly the case was with Sally Curtis. Just about anyone in our profession knew Sally from Mansfield Crematorium, even if they had not actually met her!

It was with great sadness that I learned that Sally had died at the beginning of August, losing her bravely fought battle against Cancer, the battle that she and her family hoped and prayed had been won twice before it came back earlier this year and sadly took her from us.

Sally was born on 4th December 1964 and she lived and grew up with her parents John and Dorothy Marsh in Mansfield Woodhouse, where she went to school. Sally did well at school and it was where she learned to Dance in the ‘Strictly’ style which she loved, later on a member of the Mansfield Choral Society.

On leaving school Sally enrolled on a Secretarial and Admin Course at West Nottinghamshire College. On successful completion she joined the staff at Mansfield Crematorium as an Administrative Assistant and Secretary

to the Director. Sally realised that she had found her vocation and she excelled in the different roles that she undertook over the years before she was herself, in due time, appointed Director and Registrar of Cemeteries for Mansfield District Council. In her role Sally undertook many challenges and oversaw large projects such as the extension to the Thorsby Chapel and the new car park, she was working on plans for a new cemetery and a children’s area within the cemetery grounds before she died.

Sally had many interests, and it was while involved in scoring games at the Mansfield Basketball Club, that she met Ian who was to become her husband. They became engaged in 1995 and were married in 1997. Sally and Ian’s son Matthew was born in 2001.

Sally was always busy, she and Ian transformed the shell of a house into a wonderful home and developed the garden, in which Sally loved to potter, where tomatoes and soft fruits shared space with the orchids that Sally said bloomed due to her structured neglect!

As well as looking after a busy crematorium, Sally was for many years a Technical Officer for the Federation of Burial and Cremation Authorities and she managed meetings and tasks on their behalf, working as always in the best interests of the bereaved. Sally was a regular attendee at Industry Conferences and events where she was widely known.

We will miss her.