Source: Jean Satterthwaite, March 9, 2017

Sallie Anne Dimmick was born December 23, 1936, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Helen and Wiliam Dimmick. She finished high school, then attended Pennsylvania’s Gettysburg College.

While a writer for The Gettysburgian, her college weekly, she met David Branson Satterthwaite, and they married in March 1956. They eventually moved to New Jersey where David was employed, and as their three daughters were getting older, they desired a safer city in which they could grow up. David was able to transfer to Georgia, and they moved to Peachtree City in 1971.

After building a home in the area, Sallie and her husband David became involved with their new city. Sallie helped organize the first July 4th parade and fireworks in Peachtree City in 1973. She was still teaching piano when she ran as a candidate for Peachtree City Council in November 1973, and won. She had to resign her term in order to take care of her daughter, Alice, who was diagnosed with bone cancer. Alice passed away April 7, 1977, at age 17. Sallie ran for City Council again in late 1977, but did not win.

For ten years, 1973-1983, Sallie worked mornings as an assistant at Peachtree City Medical Center, operated by Dr. Henry Drake. This doctor specialized in emergency training, and was the rescue service’s advisor. As one of the original group of volunteers, Sallie found working with the Peachtree City Fire and Rescue service very satisfying.

Sallie was certified as a basic EMT (emergency medical technician) in 1974, and certified as an Advanced EMT in December 1977. She was named Fireman - EMT of the year in 1981, when she was captain of the Rescue Unit. She was certified as a basic firefighter, and in September 1986, Sallie Satterthwaite was awarded a diploma as a First Class Firefighter from the State of Georgia Fire Academy.

As a long-serving member, Sallie continually wrote through the years about the history, problems, and achievements of the Fire and Rescue service. Peachtree City’s fire station number 84 in Kedron Village, dedicated in June 1994, was named Satterthwaite.

Best known in the Fayette County area as a journalist, Sallie began writing a weekly column for This Week in Peachtree City for which she was a reporter, in 1976. In 1979, This Week became the legal organ for Peachtree City. Her column in this newspaper continued until 1982.

Sallie Satterthwaite was named the 1977 Fayette County Woman of the Year by the Business and Professional Women’s Club, and received awards from the National Newspaper Association in 1980, Suburban Newspapers of America in 1981, and the Georgia Press Association, from 1980 through 1982.

In 1983, Sallie began a weekly column for the Fayette/Southside Sun, and she free-lanced for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the magazine Metro South, which she edited for a short time. As of the first issue of the Peachtree City Citizen, in February 1983, she was writing a weekly column, and eventually also did news articles.

She continued her involvement with the City, taking and collecting photographs of many events, and writing articles for publications, including Fayette Woman magazine throughout the 1980s. She often wrote about the City’s Fire Department and the EMS (emergency medical service).

Satterthwaite wrote her last column for the Citizen in January 2015, in which she announced she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in about 2013. After her husband’s death in April 2017, Sallie moved from Ashley Glen, a Peachtree City retirement home, to Leesburg, Virginia, where her daughter Jean and family lived. Before she left Peachtree City, a reception was held in her honor at Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church.

She died in Virginia on October 28, 2018. A memorial service was held for her in Peachtree City at Christ our Shepherd on Sunday, November 11, 2018.