Sara Adair had a knockout sense of humor that carried her through one catastrophe after another.
Adair, who died Aug. 7 at Littleton Adventist Hospital at age 66, had breast cancer and multiple myeloma, was seriously injured in a car accident and faced the trauma of both her children having cystic fibrosis.
Still, family members said she managed to keep her sometimes dark, sometimes silly sense of humor – like showing up for her stem-cell transplant in a Halloween outfit.
After her mastectomy, she and her brother, Michael Johnson of Bordeaux, France, tried to sell a book of cartoons titled “101 Uses for an Empty Bra.”
The ideas ranged from a rat using a bra for a parachute to a hammock for hamsters.
From the time she was a child, Adair was outgoing, striking up conversations with strangers, often to the embarrassment of siblings.
She loved to sing and was always in singing groups. One was called the “Pointless Sisters,” a women’s barbershop quartet, said her husband, Harry Adair of Centennial.
She also started an ensemble at the South Metro Chamber of Commerce, where she last worked.
The group sang the national anthem at Colorado Rockies and Denver Nuggets games, and Adair often composed lyrics to go with famous melodies.
Five years after breast cancer, Adair and her daughter, Eileen Adair of Denver, were badly injured when an 18-wheeler slammed into their car.
Adair’s greatest setback was finding out her daughter and son, Adam Adair of Venice, Calif., have cystic fibrosis. They are both doing well, Harry Adair said.
Sara Johnson was born Sept. 28, 1940, in Carroll County, Ind. She graduated from Delphi High School in Delphi, Ind.
She earned a music therapy degree and a master’s of student personnel services at Michigan State University.
She married Harry Adair, whom she met at a downtown Denver bank, in September 1970.
She used music therapy in working with children at Gillette Crippled Children’s Hospital in Gillette, Wyo.
After doing marketing and public relations for banks and working for the dean of students at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, she joined the South Metro Chamber of Commerce to do marketing and public relations.
In addition to her husband, children and brother, she is survived by two other brothers: Jerry Johnson of New Hampshire and Minnesota, and Bob “Dinty” Johnson of Fort Collins; and two sisters: Ann Tudor of Toronto and Mary Flower of Portland, Ore.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
