Sarah Catharine Thomas Drenning

Sarah Catharine Thomas Drenning, 93, of Frederick Maryland, died August 8, 2022, at Frederick Health Hospital.  She is survived by her husband of 72 years, John William Drenning, sister Barbara Yinger and husband Bob, children; James (Jim) Drenning and wife Gale, of Chestertown, MD, Jenifer (Jeni) Drenning Dean and husband Don, of Frederick, MD, five grandchildren; Bryan Drenning and wife Denise, Craig Drenning and wife Jaime, Rebecca Dean Smith and husband Walter, Erin Drenning Johnson and husband Chris, and Emily Dean and partner Nate Clendenen, and eight great-grandchildren; Jackson Drenning, Nolan Drenning, Harper Drenning, Ruby Smith, Wesley Drenning, Zoey Johnson, Declan Smith,   and Theodore Johnson .

“Sari”, as she was known to her family and many of her friends, was born in Frederick City Hospital on November 25, 1928, to Daniel Josiah Thomas and Alice Witter Thomas.  She grew up on her parents’ farm east of Frederick where the Frederick City Airport is now located. From 1933 to 1947 in Frederick she attended Church Street School, Elm Street School, Frederick High school (Class of 1945), and Hood College.

From 1947 to 1949 Sarah worked in Washington D.C., first for GSA in government cafeterias (most memorably, the one at the Supreme Court) and the main Post Office building, then for Woodward and Lothrop department store. She then moved back to Frederick, and on October 1, 1949, married the love of her life, John William (Bill) Drenning, of Woodsboro, MD.  In 1951, Bill and Sarah moved to Baltimore, where they lived for 23 years while raising their two children.  When Jim and Jeni went off to college, she worked for several years for Manufacturer’s Life Insurance Company.  After the death of her father in 1972, Sarah and Bill, along with Sarah’s sister Barbara (“Bobbi”) and her husband, Bob, assumed the management of the family farms, which became incorporated as Monocacy Knoll Farms. By 1975 Bill retired early and they moved back to Frederick to operate the farm business full time.  Following the death of Sarah’s mother in 1984, her children decided that they were not interested in carrying on the farming tradition, and so the farms were sold.

In 1988, Sarah and Bill built their dream home, Lock’s Hill, on a wooded hilltop overlooking Bill’s family farm in Woodsboro, where they lived for 26 years until moving to Homewood at Frederick in 2014, where they have since resided.

During her life, Sarah was an active volunteer as a Girl Scout leader, a member of Northwood Appold Methodist Church in Baltimore, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Auxiliary, and Garden Gate Garden Club.  After moving back to Frederick, Sarah renewed her membership at Grace United Church of Christ, where she had grown up, and served as an officer of the congregation as well as a charter member of the Bell Choir in 1985.  Sarah’s friends and family knew her as a prolific, talented, and accomplished knitter and, like her mother, a lover of gardening and flowering plants.

Sarah had a deeply personal interest in Frederick County history as well as her own genealogy.  She was very proud of her Getzendanner ancestry, beginning with their emigration to Frederick in the 1730s.  She was a lifelong member of the Frederick County Historical Society (Heritage Frederick) and loved Rose Hill Manor, where she volunteered as a tour guide, docent, and then treasurer of the Rose Hill Museum Council for over 25 years.  She was also an active member of the Frederick Art Club, the Literacy Council, and the Barnstormers Committee of Schifferstadt Architectural Museum (Frederick County Landmarks Foundation).

With her friend, Ann Lebherz, Sarah co-authored two books: Pre-1800 Houses of Frederick County, Vol. III and The Great Frederick Fair, A History 1747-2004 .  She learned desktop publishing and designed and published both of these books, as well as several more, including Profiles by Helen L. Smith , My Spirit and Other Poems by Laura Byers Bauer , and A History of Grace United Church of Christ .

After surviving her first bout with breast cancer in 1991 , Sarah joined at its inception the Women’s Health Initiative, a program at NIH whose research agenda includes prevention of disease, nutrition, and menopausal hormone therapy. That study soon led to the discovery that hormone therapy is not a good prevention strategy for chronic diseases in aging women.  She remained in this study for the rest of her life, and in the interim survived two more occurrences of breast cancer and three other different cancers. She was also a participant in a study at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution for Alzheimer’s disease research.

Sarah was preceded in death by her niece, Laura Yinger Lindley, and her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Patricia and Walter Dudrow, and many cousins.

A memorial for Sarah is tentatively planned for October 2, 2022, at Homewood in Frederick.  Interment will take place at a private ceremony prior to that date.  As much as she loved flowers, she was as passionate about furthering research to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, the disease from which her mother died, so in lieu of flowers the family would appreciate donations in her memory to be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.