Sally Salans

Sally Ann Eppenstein was born in Elgin, Illinois, in 1927 and raised in Chicago. Her parents were James F. Eppenstein, a prominent modernist architect, and Louise Kohn Eppenstein, childrens’ book writer and author of ‘Sally Goes to the Circus Alone”, Sally Goes Shopping Alone” and other titles featuring the imagined adventures of their firstborn daughter.

Sally attended The Francis Parker School in Chicago and later went to Scripps College in Claremont, California, and to The Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied painting.

After college, she worked briefly in Chicago for Weiss Geller Advertising and as a window designer for the Carson Pirie Scott department store.

Sally married Allen Harvey Salans in1952, and they moved to San Francisco where Harvey set up medical practice and where they raised four children.

Ever interested in growing as an artist, Sally joined San Francisco Women Artists and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Art and Art Therapy from Lone Mountain College in 1977.

She was an art instructor in the SF public schools for eight years, worked briefly with pediatric cancer patients at UCSF, and then began teaching art to children one-on-one in her home studio.

Her grandchildren were among the welcomed students. As one said, “You felt so free in Nana’s studio. She encouraged us to create without restrictions, without boundaries. I see now, as an adult, it was a deeply therapeutic process. Then, it was just pure fun!”

In later years, Sally showed equal devotion in working with geriatric patients at the San Francisco Institute on Aging.

In the early 1970’s, her interest in playing the piano was rekindled, and she pursued classical instruction with the late Sasha Lieberman, of Berkeley.

Sally also took up photography, building a dark room at home to engage in the complete photographic process. Beneficiaries of her beautiful black-andwhite photos include family members who cherish shots of the grandchildren caught spontaneously in play or thought.

Rolling this passion into a cottage business, which she called “Gramma the Camera,” Sally delighted in capturing the charm of all children being themselves.

Sally stayed active through her later years, continuing work at the Institute on Aging, greeting her dog walker buddies at Baker Beach and, perched aside an open living room window, serenading the neighborhood with strains of Rachmaninoff from her beloved piano.

Sally died on February 23, 2019. She was 91. Her husband, Harvey, predeceased her in 2010.

Survivors include four children: Cindy Salans Rosenheim (Daniel Rosenheim), Molly Salans, Josh Salans, Hillary Kambour (Michael Kambour); eight grandchildren: Sarah Weidman, Joseph Rosenheim, James Rosenheim, Emily Salans, Jessica Salans, Nicholas Rosenheim, Zachary Kambour, Zoey Kambour; and a nephew, James Markham (Suzi Markham).