Sarah Rockwell

Sarah Alice (Brown) Rockwell of Oakville died April 12, 2024 at the age of 92, surrounded by her loving family.

Alice was born in Gloucester, Virginia, on June 13, 1931, to Ira and Lyda (Heath) Brown. She lived on the family farm along the banks of the York River, but her real love was all things beautiful. She always said that she began to draw as soon as she was able to pick up a pencil and that there was nearly never a day that she did not draw.

This love of art grew into a successful career. A neighbor in Virginia recognized her innate talent and insisted on paying for her to attend art school. After completing school, she worked as a commercial artist, drawing for magazines, advertisements, and fashion publications. Eventually, this morphed into a thriving business doing commissioned portraits and paintings in Baltimore. It was there she met her husband, Gary E. Rockwell, at her mother’s boarding house in nearby Catonsville, Maryland. They married a year later, living first in Reading then moving to Oakville, Pennsylvania.

For more than fifty years after this move, and while raising four children, she continued her artistic endeavors. Alice created and sold an eclectic variety of drawings, paintings, folk art, seasonal scenes for a local woodworker, and a variety of other art genres and media. She took great joy in painting lighthouses, particularly those around the Chesapeake Bay, where her father had worked as an oysterman and where, as a child, she saw Page’s Rock Light from her home. She meticulously researched and crafted tower and screw-pile lighthouse portraits that were sold in shops around the Bay, locally, and online. She passed on her love of art by teaching countless students from children to seniors at community centers, in her home, and in a private school. Her students routinely showed their work at local businesses and the Shippensburg Fair. She had served as the Wall Art Coordinator at Harmony Ridge and the Health Care Center Gallery Lounge.

She was a member of the Carlisle Art Association, the Chambersburg Art Alliance, and the York Art Association.

Her parents, Ira Brown and Lyda Heath Brown, preceded her in death.

Alice is survived by her loving husband of 59 years, Gary E. Rockwell, of Oakville. She is also survived by her children; daughter, Ruth Cunningham and husband, Darryl; son, Gary H. Rockwell and wife, Beverly; daughter, Susan Rockwell and partner, Eric Johnson; daughter, Karen Rockwell and partner Dean Gorenflo; She is survived by her grandchildren, Ryan and Sara Yohn, Matthew Yohn, Kevin and Kelly Yohn, Danielle and Ethan Porter, and Heather and Justin Kuzma. Thirteen great-grandchildren, Isaiah Yohn, Mia Yohn, Ava Yohn, Madison Yohn, Savanah Yohn, McKenzie Yohn, Olivia Kuzma, Kaiden Kuzma, Caroline Yohn, Caleb Porter, Cameron Yohn, Charlee Kuzma, and Abigail Porter also survive.

Alice touched many lives personally and through her art. She will be missed by all.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. at Fogelsanger Bricker Funeral Home & Crematorium, Inc., 112 West King Street, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Pastor Keith Carroll will officiate. A visitation will be held from 1:30 p.m. until the start of the service.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.fogelsanger-brickerfuneralhome.com.