Sarah Frances Best was born in Pea Ridge, Kentucky on March 29th, 1914 to Cotton farmers Walter and Delia Scott.
The third child, of eight children, her siblings included Raymond, the oldest son, Lela Mae, the second oldest child and younger brothers Roy, Quinten, James, George and Horace Joe. Delia's niece, Anne Spears, also lived with the family.
In 1930, Sarah was 16 years old. The family had moved to Granite, Oklahoma, where father Walter now worked as a prison guard at the Oklahoma State Reformatory. (One of the prison's most famous inmates was Wiley Post. He served a year for robbery. After his release, he became a well-known record-setting pilot. He was killed, along with his passenger, popular American actor Will Rogers, on August 15, 1935, when the airplane Post was piloting crashed in Alaska.)
From 1930 until 1940, Oklahoma and the midwest were devastated by drought, which became known as the Dust Bowl. The entire country was also in the middle of The Great Depression, following the stock market crash of 1929. Author John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," famously chronicled this historic time and place that Sarah lived through.
After graduating from Granite High School in 1933, Sarah married Theodore Best and they moved to San Francisco, California. Ted was a career military officer stationed at The Presidio Military Base. The rest of the family soon followed them to California. They were part of the great migration that occurred in the U.S. during the 1930s.
Teddy Jr. was born in 1934 and Patricia Mae was born, a year later, in 1935. When the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the family was one of the first to cross it on opening day. Soon after, the young family moved to Los Angeles, California.
Having survived the Depression and Dust Bowl years, Sarah was determined to never live in poverty again and with hard work and determination she created her own Horatio Alger "rags-to-riches" story and life. A working woman, in a era when most women were stay-at-home wives and mothers, Sarah enjoyed a career managing a chain of dry cleaning stores in southern California. She was a tough-as-nails business woman, but had a heart of gold and was known for her generosity. She lived by the Golden Rule, which was, no doubt, a result of her devout Protestant upbringing. She embodied and lived the 20th Century American dream to the fullest and generously shared her success with friends and family.
From an early age, Sarah loved movies and the movie-star lifestyle she could only dream of, as a child in the darkened Depression era movie theaters. As a successful adult, she always drove a new Cadillac and enjoyed the finer things in life, that she didn't have, as a child. In her later years, she and husband Ted lived in a beautiful hillside home, with a pool, in Palm Springs, California. From the back yard you could see Elvis Presley's Palm Springs home and Liberace lived a couple of miles away, at the bottom of the hill. Palm Springs, in the 1950s and '60s, was the playground of the Hollywod stars and Sarah fit right in. Her best friends Hugh and Maureen Young purchased Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs home, when he moved to Rancho Mirage. They lived in the home for decades, until their deaths in the 1990s.
As fate would have it, Sarah and Ted are buried just a few rows away from Frank Sinatra (who died in 1998) in Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City, California. Director Busby Berkeley, who directed some of the most glamorous movie musicals of the 1930--the very movies that enthralled and inspired a young Sarah--is buried nearby in the same Park.
Sarah's life was cut too short by cancer, but like a Busby Berkeley or Frank Sinatra movie, her life was spectacular, award-winning and unforgettable--and she was the star. A star that will burn bright in our hearts forever.
The third child, of eight children, her siblings included Raymond, the oldest son, Lela Mae, the second oldest child and younger brothers Roy, Quinten, James, George and Horace Joe. Delia's niece, Anne Spears, also lived with the family.
In 1930, Sarah was 16 years old. The family had moved to Granite, Oklahoma, where father Walter now worked as a prison guard at the Oklahoma State Reformatory. (One of the prison's most famous inmates was Wiley Post. He served a year for robbery. After his release, he became a well-known record-setting pilot. He was killed, along with his passenger, popular American actor Will Rogers, on August 15, 1935, when the airplane Post was piloting crashed in Alaska.)
From 1930 until 1940, Oklahoma and the midwest were devastated by drought, which became known as the Dust Bowl. The entire country was also in the middle of The Great Depression, following the stock market crash of 1929. Author John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," famously chronicled this historic time and place that Sarah lived through.
After graduating from Granite High School in 1933, Sarah married Theodore Best and they moved to San Francisco, California. Ted was a career military officer stationed at The Presidio Military Base. The rest of the family soon followed them to California. They were part of the great migration that occurred in the U.S. during the 1930s.
Teddy Jr. was born in 1934 and Patricia Mae was born, a year later, in 1935. When the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the family was one of the first to cross it on opening day. Soon after, the young family moved to Los Angeles, California.
Having survived the Depression and Dust Bowl years, Sarah was determined to never live in poverty again and with hard work and determination she created her own Horatio Alger "rags-to-riches" story and life. A working woman, in a era when most women were stay-at-home wives and mothers, Sarah enjoyed a career managing a chain of dry cleaning stores in southern California. She was a tough-as-nails business woman, but had a heart of gold and was known for her generosity. She lived by the Golden Rule, which was, no doubt, a result of her devout Protestant upbringing. She embodied and lived the 20th Century American dream to the fullest and generously shared her success with friends and family.
From an early age, Sarah loved movies and the movie-star lifestyle she could only dream of, as a child in the darkened Depression era movie theaters. As a successful adult, she always drove a new Cadillac and enjoyed the finer things in life, that she didn't have, as a child. In her later years, she and husband Ted lived in a beautiful hillside home, with a pool, in Palm Springs, California. From the back yard you could see Elvis Presley's Palm Springs home and Liberace lived a couple of miles away, at the bottom of the hill. Palm Springs, in the 1950s and '60s, was the playground of the Hollywod stars and Sarah fit right in. Her best friends Hugh and Maureen Young purchased Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs home, when he moved to Rancho Mirage. They lived in the home for decades, until their deaths in the 1990s.
As fate would have it, Sarah and Ted are buried just a few rows away from Frank Sinatra (who died in 1998) in Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City, California. Director Busby Berkeley, who directed some of the most glamorous movie musicals of the 1930--the very movies that enthralled and inspired a young Sarah--is buried nearby in the same Park.
Sarah's life was cut too short by cancer, but like a Busby Berkeley or Frank Sinatra movie, her life was spectacular, award-winning and unforgettable--and she was the star. A star that will burn bright in our hearts forever.
Sarah Frances Best was born in Pea Ridge, Kentucky on March 29th, 1914 to Cotton farmers Walter and Delia Scott.
The third child, of eight children, her siblings included Raymond, the oldest son, Lela Mae, the second oldest child and younger brothers Roy, Quinten, James, George and Horace Joe. Delia's niece, Anne Spears, also lived with the family.
In 1930, Sarah was 16 years old. The family had moved to Granite, Oklahoma, where father Walter now worked as a prison guard at the Oklahoma State Reformatory. (One of the prison's most famous inmates was Wiley Post. He served a year for robbery. After his release, he became a well-known record-setting pilot. He was killed, along with his passenger, popular American actor Will Rogers, on August 15, 1935, when the airplane Post was piloting crashed in Alaska.)
From 1930 until 1940, Oklahoma and the midwest were devastated by drought, which became known as the Dust Bowl. The entire country was also in the middle of The Great Depression, following the stock market crash of 1929. Author John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," famously chronicled this historic time and place that Sarah lived through.
After graduating from Granite High School in 1933, Sarah married Theodore Best and they moved to San Francisco, California. Ted was a career military officer stationed at The Presidio Military Base. The rest of the family soon followed them to California. They were part of the great migration that occurred in the U.S. during the 1930s.
Teddy Jr. was born in 1934 and Patricia Mae was born, a year later, in 1935. When the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the family was one of the first to cross it on opening day. Soon after, the young family moved to Los Angeles, California.
Having survived the Depression and Dust Bowl years, Sarah was determined to never live in poverty again and with hard work and determination she created her own Horatio Alger "rags-to-riches" story and life. A working woman, in a era when most women were stay-at-home wives and mothers, Sarah enjoyed a career managing a chain of dry cleaning stores in southern California. She was a tough-as-nails business woman, but had a heart of gold and was known for her generosity. She lived by the Golden Rule, which was, no doubt, a result of her devout Protestant upbringing. She embodied and lived the 20th Century American dream to the fullest and generously shared her success with friends and family.
From an early age, Sarah loved movies and the movie-star lifestyle she could only dream of, as a child in the darkened Depression era movie theaters. As a successful adult, she always drove a new Cadillac and enjoyed the finer things in life, that she didn't have, as a child. In her later years, she and husband Ted lived in a beautiful hillside home, with a pool, in Palm Springs, California. From the back yard you could see Elvis Presley's Palm Springs home and Liberace lived a couple of miles away, at the bottom of the hill. Palm Springs, in the 1950s and '60s, was the playground of the Hollywod stars and Sarah fit right in. Her best friends Hugh and Maureen Young purchased Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs home, when he moved to Rancho Mirage. They lived in the home for decades, until their deaths in the 1990s.
As fate would have it, Sarah and Ted are buried just a few rows away from Frank Sinatra (who died in 1998) in Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City, California. Director Busby Berkeley, who directed some of the most glamorous movie musicals of the 1930--the very movies that enthralled and inspired a young Sarah--is buried nearby in the same Park.
Sarah's life was cut too short by cancer, but like a Busby Berkeley or Frank Sinatra movie, her life was spectacular, award-winning and unforgettable--and she was the star. A star that will burn bright in our hearts forever.
The third child, of eight children, her siblings included Raymond, the oldest son, Lela Mae, the second oldest child and younger brothers Roy, Quinten, James, George and Horace Joe. Delia's niece, Anne Spears, also lived with the family.
In 1930, Sarah was 16 years old. The family had moved to Granite, Oklahoma, where father Walter now worked as a prison guard at the Oklahoma State Reformatory. (One of the prison's most famous inmates was Wiley Post. He served a year for robbery. After his release, he became a well-known record-setting pilot. He was killed, along with his passenger, popular American actor Will Rogers, on August 15, 1935, when the airplane Post was piloting crashed in Alaska.)
From 1930 until 1940, Oklahoma and the midwest were devastated by drought, which became known as the Dust Bowl. The entire country was also in the middle of The Great Depression, following the stock market crash of 1929. Author John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath," famously chronicled this historic time and place that Sarah lived through.
After graduating from Granite High School in 1933, Sarah married Theodore Best and they moved to San Francisco, California. Ted was a career military officer stationed at The Presidio Military Base. The rest of the family soon followed them to California. They were part of the great migration that occurred in the U.S. during the 1930s.
Teddy Jr. was born in 1934 and Patricia Mae was born, a year later, in 1935. When the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the family was one of the first to cross it on opening day. Soon after, the young family moved to Los Angeles, California.
Having survived the Depression and Dust Bowl years, Sarah was determined to never live in poverty again and with hard work and determination she created her own Horatio Alger "rags-to-riches" story and life. A working woman, in a era when most women were stay-at-home wives and mothers, Sarah enjoyed a career managing a chain of dry cleaning stores in southern California. She was a tough-as-nails business woman, but had a heart of gold and was known for her generosity. She lived by the Golden Rule, which was, no doubt, a result of her devout Protestant upbringing. She embodied and lived the 20th Century American dream to the fullest and generously shared her success with friends and family.
From an early age, Sarah loved movies and the movie-star lifestyle she could only dream of, as a child in the darkened Depression era movie theaters. As a successful adult, she always drove a new Cadillac and enjoyed the finer things in life, that she didn't have, as a child. In her later years, she and husband Ted lived in a beautiful hillside home, with a pool, in Palm Springs, California. From the back yard you could see Elvis Presley's Palm Springs home and Liberace lived a couple of miles away, at the bottom of the hill. Palm Springs, in the 1950s and '60s, was the playground of the Hollywod stars and Sarah fit right in. Her best friends Hugh and Maureen Young purchased Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs home, when he moved to Rancho Mirage. They lived in the home for decades, until their deaths in the 1990s.
As fate would have it, Sarah and Ted are buried just a few rows away from Frank Sinatra (who died in 1998) in Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City, California. Director Busby Berkeley, who directed some of the most glamorous movie musicals of the 1930--the very movies that enthralled and inspired a young Sarah--is buried nearby in the same Park.
Sarah's life was cut too short by cancer, but like a Busby Berkeley or Frank Sinatra movie, her life was spectacular, award-winning and unforgettable--and she was the star. A star that will burn bright in our hearts forever.
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Sarah Frances Best
Beloved Wife-Mother-Friend
Born Kentucky 1914
Died California 1978
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
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