Sally Webb

Sally Webb, a long-time resident of Santa Barbara, CA, passed away at her home in Salt Lake City on January 13, 2026. She was 86 years old.

Sally was born in San Francisco on September 16, 1939. Soon afterwards her father transferred with the JC Penney Company to Fresno. The family lived on a five acre ranch with, as she wrote later, “orchard, horse, irrigation ditch, toads, mosquitos, pollywogs, and much bermuda grass that needed mowing.” She attended Fresno High and then Occidental College, where she majored in history. She spent a very impactful year abroad in Oslo, learning Norwegian and travelling throughout Europe on breaks. She retained a lifelong love for travel.

In 1961 she married Don Webb, a UCSF-trained physician. They lived in the Bay Area (where Sally got her secondary school teaching credential), Washington DC (where she worked at the Library of Congress as a Public Welfare Research Analyst), and Rochester MN for Don’s Orthopedic residency at the Mayo Clinic. After residency, they moved briefly to Visalia, near Don’s family, then to Santa Barbara where they spent the next 50 years and raised their three children: Jeff, Tim and Elizabeth. At the Mayo Clinic Sally and Don made a group of lifelong friends—the “Coventry Group,” the orthopedic fellows and their spouses—with whom they continued to reunite over many years to celebrate and renew those early connections.

Sally’s lifetime career was in education. She began teaching junior high school in Santa Barbara during the 1970s, first at Christian School and then at Mount Carmel. She loved the crazy energy of middle schoolers! During this same period she attended Fuller Theological Seminary and earned a master’s degree, eventually becoming a Professor of Education at Westmont College in the teacher training program, supervising student teachers.

After retirement Sally became an accomplished watercolor painter.

Above all, Sally was dedicated to her family – husband, children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren — whom she supported with unstinting kindness and generosity. Sally and Don’s home in Montecito was a treasured family gathering spot for many years.

Sally is survived by her daughter Elizabeth Wing of Salt Lake City, son-in-law Bill Wing and granddaughter Emily Wing; son Tim Webb of San Luis Obispo, daughter-in-law Michele Simonsen, and granddaughter Ula Simonsen-Webb; son Jeff Webb of Salt Lake City, daughter-in-law Laurie Bragg and grandchildren Michaela Webb and Clay Webb.