Sandra Joyce Vernon went home to the Lord on August 1, 2018. She was 79.

Ms. Vernon had a quick wit and kind heart. Friends knew her as a straight-shooter on whom they could rely for honesty, even if it hurt. But they also knew that once you had Sandy for a friend, you had a friend for life.

Those lasting bonds were evident in her more than 30 years as an employee at AT&T. Ms. Vernon started there as an overseas operator, and worked her way up to supervisory roles within the company. Along the way, she made friends that she held close throughout her life. Several, like Ms. Vernon, moved to Georgia in 1988, to work for Lucent Technologies, one of the companies formed after the breakup of AT&T.

After she retired, Ms. Vernon volunteered occasionally at a local church, and paid close attention to local and national politics. She and neighbor Hazel Wooten became best buddies, traveling together and catching a meal – sometimes more than once a week – at her favorite restaurant, Capers.

Ms. Vernon was a devoted mother, daughter and aunt. She mourned deeply when her daughter Nicole Smith died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2016. At the time, Ms. Vernon was fighting her own battle with pancreatic cancer.

Given the circumstances, she could have spent the rest of her time on earth feeling sorry for herself, but that wasn't Sandy. She put up a good fight and kept a smile on her face. She developed friendships with the nurses at the Cancer Center at Kennestone, her fellow cancer patients, and the incredible American Cancer Society volunteers, including George, Terry and Amy, who drove her to and from chemo treatments.

Ms. Vernon was the last link to a generation of Vernons. She was predeceased by her mother, Earline; her father, George; her siblings, Hayden, George, Juanita, Harold, and Lorraine, and her daughter, Nicole.

Survivors include several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Ms. Vernon asked that no memorial or funeral service be held in her honor. Instead, to remember her,  please send donations to the American Cancer Society.

Her ashes will be interred at Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, N.Y.