Sarah Delany
Delany and her sister, who died in 1995 at the age of 106, wrote "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years." The book told their story of growing up black before the civil rights movement. It was written with journalist Amy Hill Hearth and published in 1993.
The reminiscence, by turns poignant and playful, has become a high school and college text as well as a play, "Having Our Say," which ran on Broadway in 1995.
The two spry and witty women were celebrated as independent, educated women whose gumption and humor sustained them through the days of Jim Crow.
Delany, who was known as Sadie, was the oldest sister of 10 children who grew up in Raleigh, N.C., where her father, freed from slavery at age 7, became a school vice principal and the nation's first elected black Episcopal bishop.
She and her sister, Bessie, documented the iron determination of two black women not only to survive but to thrive. In their 20s, both women moved to New York and began successful careers -- Sarah as a high school teacher, Bessie as a dentist.
After their first success, the sisters and Hearth published the "Book of Everyday Wisdom," which included such tidbits as "Why life was slower when trains were faster."
The Delany sisters lived their entire lives together, the last 38 years in Mount Vernon.
Delany is survived by 14 nieces and nephews.
