Our Mom, Sally Blake Bentobji, died on Friday, February 5, 2021 at her home in Topeka. She was born on August 1, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan, to Dr. Henry S. Blake and Alice Lee Scott Blake.
She graduated from Topeka High School in 1959, Kansas State University in 1965 and Washburn University in 1985 with a degree in Computer Science. She was employed by the U.S. Coast guard as a Systems Analyst for 26 years. She was married to D.M. Bentobji and later divorced.
Sally was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by a daughter, Sabria Toussaint, a son, Amine Bentobji, two granddaughters, Arianne and Claire Toussaint, a sister, Susan Lemon, and a brother, Henry S. Blake Ill.
Sally always enjoyed her work, loved her family members and many friends in the United States as well as those abroad.
Her Mom called her "Sally Sunshine" as she always tried to brighten people's lives. Grandma was worried someone would take her away one day because she liked to climb on strangers' laps as a child.
Her love of the Arts and French led her to study at the American Institute in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she met and fell in love with an Algerian law student. Sally's life in Algeria was a very happy one. Mom was an avid nature lover and would often camp out by the sea. She especially enjoyed fishing, snorkeling, horseback riding and mushroom and snail hunting. She was a great cook and liked to research new dishes. She learned that before cooking snails she had to purge them of whatever they had ingested. Once, she put snails inside a closed wooden box on the balcony and woke the next day to find them crawling all over the house.
Sally was full of life and that drew people to her. She loved animals and they loved her back. She was fun, loving and very generous towards the people she loved and esteemed, especially towards her children. She had a unique talent of soothing you. She was also brutally honest. She could not tell a lie.
She touched the lives of many with her kindness and genuine care. May you rest in peace, beautiful mother.
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