Sally H. Kahn

Sally Kahn (85), formerly of Boston and Weston, MA, died on October 30, 2024 at her home in Northampton with family by her side. Sally was born in Greenwich, CT to the late Lorena Cornwall and Clifton Henson. She had a flair for the theatrical from an early age and held center stage among friends and family for most of her life. The youngest of three daughters, she grew up in Fairfield County, CT exploring the countryside with her beloved dog, Jabot. An actress and athlete at New Canaan High, Sally entered Simmons College at 18 on a scholarship but found college-life to be less than advertised. She left Simmons after three years to take up a clerical position at Perkin Elmer where she soon fell in love with a dashing young German Jewish engineer named Herb Kahn. Like Sally, Herb was always looking for an audience to play to, and the pair became a fixture in community theater productions in Westport. They married in 1963 and produced three children that never ceased to astound them. Herb and Sally spent 45 years together indulging their shared passion for travel, books, gardening and the classic French cooking of Julia Child.

The Kahns moved to Weston, MA in 1975. Sally became active in the effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment until she injured her back lifting a box of campaign brochures. While the amendment never became law, the effort inspired Sally to return to Simmons to complete her degree. She successfully earned a BA in Communications, worked for seven years as a journalist for the suburban press, and became a travel agent for the perks. In her 50s, after moving to Boston, she returned to school again to train as a landscape designer at Radcliffe College. She then combined her many talents leading educational trips to the garden estates in England, Wales and France.

After Herb’s death in 2008, Sally moved to Northampton, MA to be near her youngest daughter. In retirement, she continued to live life with flair, organizing parties for friends and neighbors. She became well-known in the Village Hill neighborhood for her bountiful garden, voracious appetite for reading, and her razor-sharp wit.

Sally was predeceased by Jabot, her sisters Carroll and Lorena, and her husband, Herbert. She is survived by her daughter Carol and her husband Thomas Borden of Essex Fells, NJ, son Peter and his wife Susanna Kahn of Charlotte, VT, daughter Helen and her wife Dorrie Brooks of Florence, MA, and her four grandchildren Jackson, Julia, Harper and Joseph. She also leaves behind her cat, Odette and a spreadsheet of the thousands of books she read in her final years. A family graveside service will be held in Hollywood Cemetery in Virginia.