Sally May Kramer

Sally May (Yates) Kramer (80) passed away peacefully on October 8, 2025, in Ottawa, Kansas, at Rock Creek of Ottawa. She was born in Ottawa to the late Wilbur and Letha Yates.

Sally is survived by her loving husband Terry L. Kramer of Ottawa; her brother Frank D. (Mary Lois) Yates of Ottawa and their four children; her sister Sandra S. (Michael) Brooks of Overland Park, Kansas; and sister-in-law Claudia (Rick) Roe of Wichita, Kansas, and their three children. Also left to celebrate her life and mourn her passing are many nieces and nephews.

She was proceeded in death by her brother David L. Yates of Nipomo, California, who is survived by his wife Karen and their daughter Jaima.

Sally was baptized into the Ottawa Church of the Brethren, which she attended during her Ottawa years.

Sally graduated from Ottawa High School in 1963, Washburn University in 1967, and then taught elementary school in Topeka.

Sally and Terry began dating in high school and finally married on June 27, 1968, in Las Vegas, Nevada (unfortunately, the Elvis impersonator was not available). Thereafter, they lived in Manhattan, Kansas, from 1969 to 1970, where she taught elementary school.

After moving to the Chicago suburbs in 1970, Sally taught elementary school in Homewood, Illinois, until retiring in the early 2000’s. Sally and her husband enjoyed entertaining family and friends from out-of-state, especially in Chicago where they lived most of their married life. Probably one of the most memorable visits was from Terry’s grandmother, Mary White, and Sally’s mother, Letha, who traveled to Chicago by train. Just image these two women seeing the sights of Chicago for the first time. The funniest event for Letha and Mary was that Letha fell in the middle of Michigan Avenue. She was not hurt and the two visitors had a good laugh about it.

After building a new home in Graeagle, California, and moving there, Sally resumed her teaching career in the suburbs of Reno, Nevada, for seven years before retiring for the final time. They then moved back to Kansas in 2011 and lived in Leawood, Kansas, before moving back to their hometown of Ottawa, Kansas, in August of 2011.

Sally and her husband loved traveling and were blessed to have seen many places. Her favorite was a river cruise down the Danube River. Other fun travels were the Alaskan Inside Passage Cruise (where she found a love for jewelry much to her husband’s chagrin); Venice, Italy; Paris, France; London, England; Stow-on-the Wold, a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England (where Sally plugged her hair dryer in without the proper plug adapter, and the end of the hair dryer looked like a 747 taking off; fortunately she did not burn down the14th century hotel); and all of Ireland. During her stay at Ballymaloe in East Cork, Ireland, there is a famous cooking school run by Darina Allen. Since Allen was her mother’s maiden name, everyone laughed that Sally might be related to a famous Irish cook.

Sally loved animals, but her best animal love was a cat named Moe that moved with them from the Chicago suburbs to a high-rise apartment (38 floors up) in downtown Chicago. Moe got his first view of the Chicago skyline by jumping up on a windowsill, immediately screamed and jumped off. Guess Moe did not like what he saw, but soon came to love sunning himself on the sill. After Moe’s passing, she acquired another cat, also named Moe (II) through Karen’s vet practice. Very sadly before moving back to Kansas, Sally returned Moe II to Karen, who then returned Moe II to his original owner in Fresno, CA. The original owner kept Sally up-to-date on Moe II, sent pictures, and even a Mother’s Day greeting.

Sally (and her husband) took flying lessons and became licensed pilots. Their favorite planes were the Cessna 172 and 182 where they flew around the Great Lakes.

Sally was a big car racing fan; both IndyCars, Formula I and Nascar. In fact, she and her husband have held IndyCar 500 racing tickets for over 50 years. Sally’s favorite IndyCar racer was Mario Andretti. In fact, Sally had her picture taken with Mario after a race at the restaurant he and his crew always went to after the race. Years later, Sally and family attending the 500 wore T-shirts with Sally and Mario’s picture on them, hoping to see Mario at the same restaurant. Those T-shirts are a treasure Sally left behind to those who wore them.

Sally will be dearly missed by all who knew her. She has left a big hole in her family’s heart, but she left us with many wonderful memories and more.

A private memorial service has already been held.

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