Donna Elaine Sarchin
Donna Elaine Sarchin, a 59-year resident of Mercer Island, died May 5 after a brief illness. She was 92.
Donna was born October 24, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois to Jacob and Sadie Shekter. The family moved to Portland when she was a girl. Donna attended Reed College in Portland, studying art, and moved to Seattle to take a job as an illustrator with Frederick & Nelson department store. She met Norm Sarchin at a Temple De Hirsch dance, and was attracted to him, she said, because his sweater had loose yarn on it and she wanted to fix it. Donna married Norm, the love of her life, in 1948. They moved to the forest that was Mercer Island’s North End in 1955, where Donna lived until now.
Donna continued her art career initially with a home weaving business, where from her loom in our basement she designed and hand-wove skirts that were sold in an exclusive shop in the Olympic Hotel. She returned to her career after her sons were in school, starting as the Estee Lauder representative at Nordstrom in Bellevue. Donna later became a sales representative for several high-end cosmetics firms, including Oscar de la Renta.
Donna was an expert seamstress, sewing most of her own dresses and some shirts for her boys in her younger days, and was an inveterate knitter. In her later life, she would spend many afternoons knitting with her friends at the Tricoter yarn shop in Madison Park. Her passion, though, was her dogs. She brought home her first poodle in the late ‘60s, a silver toy named Jaques, and then a succession of toy and miniature poodles. She and Norm always enjoyed camping and traveling, first in a trailer towed by our 1957 sky-blue Buick, then in a motorhome where they spent their retired years touring the West, spending several months of the year at Thousand Trails campgrounds from the hill country of Texas to southern California, Arizona and New Mexico.
Donna was predeceased by Norm in July 2012. She is survived by her sons, Larry, of Mercer Island; Jeff (Sue), of Kenmore, WA; grandchildren Sarah and Collin Sarchin, niece Lynne Shekter Kluger (Ron) of Indianola, WA; and her poodles Lovey, Honey Ryder, and Hopper.
To remember Donna, think of her walking on the beach with her dogs running free in the sand. She would appreciate contributions to Temple De Hirsch Sinai (online at tdhs-nw.org) or the Seattle Humane Society.