This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 15, 2011 - At a time when many people still whispered the word "cancer," Sally Hermann moved the conversation out of the shadows and into the light, giving those whose lives are touched by cancer the educational and emotional tools they need for the fight.
In 1977, Mrs. Hermann established and became the director of what is believed to be the first cancer information center in the nation. The Barnard Health & Cancer Information Center, now part of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, was the brainchild of Dr. Carlos A. Perez. At the time, Perez was medical director of the Division of Radiation Oncology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology. But the center was Mrs. Hermann's creation.
"It was my idea, but she took it and ran fast with it," said Perez, who is now retired.
Mrs. Hermann, who had been in declining health for several years, died Tuesday at her home in Ladue. She was 84.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m., Sat., July 16, at Church of the Annunziata.
A Slightly Altered Dream
Sarah "Sally" Loughborough Keyes Hermann was the eldest child of Edward Lawrence Keyes III and Emily Catlin Shepley Keyes. She was born on Aug. 6, 1926, in Bar Harbor, Maine, where the St. Louis family had a summer home. She attended Mary Institute, Miss Porter's (boarding) School in Farmington, Conn. and Pine Manor Junior College in Massachusetts.
As a child, she had dreamed of being on the stage, becoming a nun or following in the footsteps of four generations of physicians, including her father.
But in the end, she became the font of hope for thousands of people newly diagnosed with cancer and their families, helping them to understand how to extend and enrich their lives. The resource and support program she built became a model for cancer information centers throughout the U.S. and around the world, including Beijing, Thailand and Rio de Janeiro.
"She started with an empty room and learned everything," said Eileen McCarthy, the center's current nurse coordinator. "Then she acquired and organized the information until the room looked like a library."
For the first two years, Mrs. Hermann volunteered almost full time at the center, greeting patients, their families and medical staff, and directing visitors to the resources provided primarily by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The center's materials cover diagnosis, treatment options and guidelines for treatment, nutritional information for the oncology patient and emotional support. That's where Mrs. Hermann excelled.
"She almost became a counselor," Perez recalled with a still admiring laugh.
As the need for resources grew, Mrs. Hermann acquired a growing staff of volunteers. Eventually, paid staff was hired, including registered nurses expert in cancer care. Trained volunteers remain an integral part of the cancer center's team, a role that Mrs. Hermann relinquished only after establishing a world renowned program that she continued to keep an eye on.
"When I (came to the center) in 2000, Sally was no longer volunteering," McCarthy said. "But on many occasions, she would stop in just 'to see how things were going with the patients.' Her love for the center and her concern for the patients had not ended when her days of volunteering stopped."
'Do-gooder' of the First Order
Mrs. Hermann's medical volunteering began early.
"She was very active as a candy striper at Barnes for years," said her brother-in-law, Clarence "Cedge" Barksdale, the former CEO of Centerre Bank. "Nini thought she was just the cat's meow."
"Nini," Barksdale's wife, is Mrs. Hermann's youngest sister, Emily Catlin Keyes Barksdale.
"Sally was the best; I always had her on a pedestal," Nini Barksdale admitted, "because she was a do-gooder of the first order; she was an intrinsically thoughtful individual. And she had a lifelong interest in things medical."
In addition to establishing the cancer center, Mrs. Hermann led volunteer activities at St. Louis University Hospital (formerly Firmin Desloge Hospital), St. John's hospital, St. Mary's hospital, and St. Louis Children's Hospital, and served on the board of The Wellness Community, a cancer support network.
She also served as a Forest Park Children's Center associate and a member of the Missouri Botanical Garden Women's Association.
Mrs. Hermann was duly recognized for her civic and charitable efforts. She received the American Cancer Society's Spirit of Health Award in 2002 and was named a St. Louis Globe-Democrat Woman of Achievement in 1979 for her involvement in "a truly unique service, the Cancer Information Center at Barnes, (providing) counsel and comfort not only to patients, but also to their families."
Despite her achievements and accolades she was, by all accounts, self-effacing.
"Sally maintained an 'others' priority,' " said her longtime friend, Janey S. Symington, a retired biologist. "She was missing receptors for credit to herself."
A Cancer Survivor
Mrs. Hermann was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1983, six years after she established the cancer center.
"Her diagnosis gave more poignancy and significance to all of her work going forward," said her son, Rick Hermann. "It gave new meaning and inspiration to her work with other cancer survivors, and it made her the ultimate spokesperson to provide a great message of comfort and hope for other cancer survivors."
She faced her diagnosis with the equanimity that family and friends said was her hallmark.
"She always took the best view," said Symington. "She brought a peaceful and optimistic atmosphere to all those she contacted as a Eucharistic minister for her church or in her many volunteer activities in the hospitals and wellness community."
Faith, Family, Friends
She chose a life of service that began and ended with home.
"Two of her most common refrains were 'I love you' and 'God bless you,'" said her son, Rick. "The center of her life was her faith and her family; everything else flowed from that."
Sally Keyes chose a husband and children over a professional career. The dye was cast when, at 15, she and her Tyrolean felt hat with the red feather attracted Frederick Hermann's attention more than the horses at the show they were attending.
They were married in 1949. A year earlier, Frederick had joined the Hermann Oak Leather Company, the tanning business founded by his grandfather in 1881 to provide equestrian products to settlers heading west along the Lewis and Clark trails. He would go on to lead the company and lend support to all of his wife's endeavors, especially the cancer center. Recently, he focused on her health.
"Fred took such great care of Sally," said close family friend, Lee M. Liberman, retired CEO of Laclede Gas Co. "Nobody ever took better care of a wife than he did."
About Mrs. Hermann, Liberman said, "Some people thought of her as quiet, but she talked to me; we had lots of conversation," Liberman said. "There wasn't anyone nicer than Sally,"
Ned O. Lemkemeier agreed fully.
"Sally was a very, very charming woman, a great mother of five children and an absolutely wonderful grandmother," said Lemkemeier, a partner at Bryan Cave, a family friend for more than two decades, and one of Mrs. Hermann's in-laws. "I can assure you she was a very grand woman."
Mrs. Hermann, who loved music, painting and gardening, is survived by her husband of 62 years, Frederick Albert Hermann Jr.; her five children, Lawrence Shepley Hermann (Robin), Frederick "Rick" A. Hermann III, Sally "Holly" Gulick (David), Evelyn "Lyn" Grace (Warren), Mary Lemkemeier (John), all of Ladue; her siblings, Edward Lawrence Keyes IV, Mary Shepley Keyes Otto, and Emily Catlin Keyes Barksdale, and 11 grandchildren.
She was a lifelong member of Annunziata Catholic Church, where she served as both lector and Eucharistic minister. Her memorial Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m.. Sat., July 16, at her church, 9305 Clayton Road at Cella Road, in Ladue. Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers and in memory of Mrs. Hermann, the family suggests the performance of a random act of kindness. Memorials to a charity of the donor's choice would also be appreciated.
Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service.