For the better part of 50 years, Sarah Lee Foster was one of Denver’s most popular cosmetologists. The long hours she clocked in at the salons, though, didn’t put a crimp in the amount of time she devoted to the community service she so enjoyed.
She was the first woman to serve as president of the Five Points Business Association and spent 20 years helping to make its Juneteenth celebration one of the largest such events in the nation. She also created the Five Points Coalition for a Drug-Free Colorado and hosted an essay contest in which students were invited to write about what it means to be drug-free. That project is now in its 19th year.
In addition, Foster helped organize Safe Night Colorado, an annual get-together where families, elected officials, law enforcement and firefighters gather to set the stage for a summer that reflects Safe Night Colorado’s motto of “No Drugs, No Weapons, No Alcohol and No Arguments.”
Born in Holly Grove, Ark., to J.L. Shelton and Jennie B. Grimes, Foster was one month shy of her 83rd birthday when she died March 1 in Texas. She had moved to the San Antonio area in 2009 to live with two of her four grandchildren, Col. Carol Anderson and Kelvin Anderson.
A graduate of Holly Grove Vocational High School, Foster attended Shorter College and Arkansas Baptist College. After moving to Denver, she graduated from Mile Hi Beauty School. In 1962, she returned to Holly Grove to start the Holly Grove Homecoming Club, a civic- pride organization responsible for developing an 8-acre city park and a community center.
She also completed the Denver Police Citizens Academy, serving as parliamentarian and bylaws chair of its alumni association, and the District Attorney’s Citizen Institute. Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority and Fraternity, of which she was a member, appointed her to be its national coordinator of civic and community action.
Her numerous awards include being named Honorary Mayor of Five Points by former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission’s Humanitarian Award, the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce Leadership Award and then-Gov. Bill Clinton’s Arkansas Travelers Ambassador Award.
A funeral for Foster is planned for 11 a.m. today
at Shorter Community AME Church, 3100 Richard Allen Court. Burial will follow at Fort Logan National Cemetery.
She was a 50-year member of Shorter.
Foster is also survived by two other granddaughters, Zedora Porter-Barnes of Los Angeles and Angela Love of Lynwood, Calif; her brothers, the Rev. Willie Parks of Holly Grove and Roosevelt Shelton of Little Rock, Ark.; sisters Joyce Harden and Verna Shelton of Kansas City, Mo.; and seven great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth Foster, and son, Coral LaVern Porter.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com
