Sandra
Sandra Fall Ranger
Sandra Fall Ranger, 89, passed peacefully, surrounded by her family, on September 21, 2023 in Scottsdale, Arizona, 44 years and half a lifetime after moving with Ned, five children and a dog from Detroit, Michigan in search of new adventures.
An only child born in Philadelphia and a descendant of American Revolutionary War soldiers, having lost her father young, she attended Hillsdale College, entered the post-war work force and started a whirlwind lifelong romance with Ned in bustling downtown Detroit and formed a rock-solid family in Grosse Pointe Farms with many friends and extended family throughout the east and midwest.
During one cold winter in 1979, she and Ned decided to move to Arizona where she blossomed into an entrepreneur, community leader, hospitality industry CEO of Ranger Resources (which she founded with son Patrick and where she acquired the nickname “Snady the gift lady”), Bikram hot yoga instructor and, most recently, published author and motivational speaker. She was the matriarch of the Ranger family that includes Edward, Patrick, Julie, Jackie and Peter, their spouses and children, respectively, Sandra, Stella, Eddie and Michael; Caroline, Gabrielle and Patrick; Grace, Tommy and Bobbie; Jack and Julia; Hattie and her first great grandchild Freddy.
Once an empty nester, she served as sounding board and wise advisor to her children and many friends and colleagues, traveled extensively, climbed mountains, swam laps backstroking, journaled daily, oil painted, tracked politics and, after Ned’s passing, remarried and buried a second and a third husband, while sending family birthday cards filled with stacks of two dollar bills, hustling competitive hands of gin rummy or rotating the tires of her Lexus.
Her final years were marked by anniversaries, holidays, book clubs, faith and family and, up to three months ago, she led a vital and unrestricted life until unanticipated health conditions intervened. During this summertime, her strength, faith and maternal instincts engaged to fight the disease with new acquaintances at the Arizona Mayo Clinics and Sedona’s Chapel of the Holy Cross while comforting those closest trying to imagine a life without her. The final days were peaceful, painless with a purity of sadness that reflects the enormity of the love that she both transmitted and received unconditionally. Sandra lived a full life and left us a legacy that both comforts and challenges her survivors.
Services: Saturday, October 7th at 11am, Brophy Chapel, 4701 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona. Condolences may be expressed at www.whitneymurphyfuneralhome.com.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be directed to Sandra’s beloved Arizona Women’s Board’s Author’s Luncheon (
AuthorsLuncheonAZ.org
)
Snady: A memoir of a Grace Fall life
https://a.co/d/6RYemKu
An only child born in Philadelphia and a descendant of American Revolutionary War soldiers, having lost her father young, she attended Hillsdale College, entered the post-war work force and started a whirlwind lifelong romance with Ned in bustling downtown Detroit and formed a rock-solid family in Grosse Pointe Farms with many friends and extended family throughout the east and midwest.
During one cold winter in 1979, she and Ned decided to move to Arizona where she blossomed into an entrepreneur, community leader, hospitality industry CEO of Ranger Resources (which she founded with son Patrick and where she acquired the nickname “Snady the gift lady”), Bikram hot yoga instructor and, most recently, published author and motivational speaker. She was the matriarch of the Ranger family that includes Edward, Patrick, Julie, Jackie and Peter, their spouses and children, respectively, Sandra, Stella, Eddie and Michael; Caroline, Gabrielle and Patrick; Grace, Tommy and Bobbie; Jack and Julia; Hattie and her first great grandchild Freddy.
Once an empty nester, she served as sounding board and wise advisor to her children and many friends and colleagues, traveled extensively, climbed mountains, swam laps backstroking, journaled daily, oil painted, tracked politics and, after Ned’s passing, remarried and buried a second and a third husband, while sending family birthday cards filled with stacks of two dollar bills, hustling competitive hands of gin rummy or rotating the tires of her Lexus.
Her final years were marked by anniversaries, holidays, book clubs, faith and family and, up to three months ago, she led a vital and unrestricted life until unanticipated health conditions intervened. During this summertime, her strength, faith and maternal instincts engaged to fight the disease with new acquaintances at the Arizona Mayo Clinics and Sedona’s Chapel of the Holy Cross while comforting those closest trying to imagine a life without her. The final days were peaceful, painless with a purity of sadness that reflects the enormity of the love that she both transmitted and received unconditionally. Sandra lived a full life and left us a legacy that both comforts and challenges her survivors.
Services: Saturday, October 7th at 11am, Brophy Chapel, 4701 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona. Condolences may be expressed at www.whitneymurphyfuneralhome.com.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be directed to Sandra’s beloved Arizona Women’s Board’s Author’s Luncheon (
AuthorsLuncheonAZ.org
)
Snady: A memoir of a Grace Fall life
https://a.co/d/6RYemKu
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