Mrs. Sarah H. Swords Schaffner, 89, of Washington, D.C., formerly of Lancaster, died Tuesday in Washington. A noted singer and former missionary, she was the mother of film director, Franklin J. Schaffner. Born in Lancaster, she was a daughter of the late Josiah and Martha Louise Stouter Swords. She worked as a young woman teaching in Lancaster public schools, studied voice in Philadelphia and was well-known as a soprano soloist in church and concert performances in Lancaster.
In 1915 she married the Rev. Paul Franklin Schaffner of Hummelstown, a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and of the Reformed Church Theological Seminary in Lancaster. That same year she accompanied him to Japan, where they served for 10 years as missionaries with the then Reformed Church, now the United Church of Christ. While living in Tokyo she appeared as a soloist in several benefit concerts in aid of World War I refugees. In 1923-24, during home leave in the United States, Mrs. Schaffner studied voice at the New England Convervatory of Music and was soloist at the first Congregational Church of Boston.
On Rev. Schaffner's death in Japan in 1925 she returned to Lancaster with her three children, later joining the advertising department of the Armstrong Cork Co., as an interior decorator. After her children had grown and left Lancaster, she became dean of residents at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., later moving to Philadelphia, where she taught at the Lankanau School.
In the years between 1947 and 1955 she spent time abroad in India, Czechoslovakia, Sicily and Canada, settling in Washington, D.C. in 1955. In Washington she sang in the choir of St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, was a member of the church vestry, was active in the Washington Committee for Japan International Christian University and was a member of the Washington Club, the Women's National Democratic Club, the English-Speaking Union and Ikebana International.
Surviving are three children, Franklin J. Schaffner of Santa Monica, Calif., the award winning film director and producer; Dr. Isabelle R. Schaffner, former director of geriatric services at St. Elizabeth Hosptial in Washington, D.C.; and Louise Schaffner Armstrong of Washington, retired foreign service officer; and three grandchildren.
[Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, 31 Dec 1980, pg 4]
Sarah's parents were divorced by 1899, and her father had remarried to a woman named Anna (nee O'Connor) Penman, living in Joliet, Illinois in 1900. Her mother remarried to Christian Burkholder in 1904.
In 1915 she married the Rev. Paul Franklin Schaffner of Hummelstown, a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and of the Reformed Church Theological Seminary in Lancaster. That same year she accompanied him to Japan, where they served for 10 years as missionaries with the then Reformed Church, now the United Church of Christ. While living in Tokyo she appeared as a soloist in several benefit concerts in aid of World War I refugees. In 1923-24, during home leave in the United States, Mrs. Schaffner studied voice at the New England Convervatory of Music and was soloist at the first Congregational Church of Boston.
On Rev. Schaffner's death in Japan in 1925 she returned to Lancaster with her three children, later joining the advertising department of the Armstrong Cork Co., as an interior decorator. After her children had grown and left Lancaster, she became dean of residents at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., later moving to Philadelphia, where she taught at the Lankanau School.
In the years between 1947 and 1955 she spent time abroad in India, Czechoslovakia, Sicily and Canada, settling in Washington, D.C. in 1955. In Washington she sang in the choir of St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, was a member of the church vestry, was active in the Washington Committee for Japan International Christian University and was a member of the Washington Club, the Women's National Democratic Club, the English-Speaking Union and Ikebana International.
Surviving are three children, Franklin J. Schaffner of Santa Monica, Calif., the award winning film director and producer; Dr. Isabelle R. Schaffner, former director of geriatric services at St. Elizabeth Hosptial in Washington, D.C.; and Louise Schaffner Armstrong of Washington, retired foreign service officer; and three grandchildren.
[Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, 31 Dec 1980, pg 4]
Sarah's parents were divorced by 1899, and her father had remarried to a woman named Anna (nee O'Connor) Penman, living in Joliet, Illinois in 1900. Her mother remarried to Christian Burkholder in 1904.
Mrs. Sarah H. Swords Schaffner, 89, of Washington, D.C., formerly of Lancaster, died Tuesday in Washington. A noted singer and former missionary, she was the mother of film director, Franklin J. Schaffner. Born in Lancaster, she was a daughter of the late Josiah and Martha Louise Stouter Swords. She worked as a young woman teaching in Lancaster public schools, studied voice in Philadelphia and was well-known as a soprano soloist in church and concert performances in Lancaster.
In 1915 she married the Rev. Paul Franklin Schaffner of Hummelstown, a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and of the Reformed Church Theological Seminary in Lancaster. That same year she accompanied him to Japan, where they served for 10 years as missionaries with the then Reformed Church, now the United Church of Christ. While living in Tokyo she appeared as a soloist in several benefit concerts in aid of World War I refugees. In 1923-24, during home leave in the United States, Mrs. Schaffner studied voice at the New England Convervatory of Music and was soloist at the first Congregational Church of Boston.
On Rev. Schaffner's death in Japan in 1925 she returned to Lancaster with her three children, later joining the advertising department of the Armstrong Cork Co., as an interior decorator. After her children had grown and left Lancaster, she became dean of residents at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., later moving to Philadelphia, where she taught at the Lankanau School.
In the years between 1947 and 1955 she spent time abroad in India, Czechoslovakia, Sicily and Canada, settling in Washington, D.C. in 1955. In Washington she sang in the choir of St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, was a member of the church vestry, was active in the Washington Committee for Japan International Christian University and was a member of the Washington Club, the Women's National Democratic Club, the English-Speaking Union and Ikebana International.
Surviving are three children, Franklin J. Schaffner of Santa Monica, Calif., the award winning film director and producer; Dr. Isabelle R. Schaffner, former director of geriatric services at St. Elizabeth Hosptial in Washington, D.C.; and Louise Schaffner Armstrong of Washington, retired foreign service officer; and three grandchildren.
[Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, 31 Dec 1980, pg 4]
Sarah's parents were divorced by 1899, and her father had remarried to a woman named Anna (nee O'Connor) Penman, living in Joliet, Illinois in 1900. Her mother remarried to Christian Burkholder in 1904.
In 1915 she married the Rev. Paul Franklin Schaffner of Hummelstown, a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and of the Reformed Church Theological Seminary in Lancaster. That same year she accompanied him to Japan, where they served for 10 years as missionaries with the then Reformed Church, now the United Church of Christ. While living in Tokyo she appeared as a soloist in several benefit concerts in aid of World War I refugees. In 1923-24, during home leave in the United States, Mrs. Schaffner studied voice at the New England Convervatory of Music and was soloist at the first Congregational Church of Boston.
On Rev. Schaffner's death in Japan in 1925 she returned to Lancaster with her three children, later joining the advertising department of the Armstrong Cork Co., as an interior decorator. After her children had grown and left Lancaster, she became dean of residents at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., later moving to Philadelphia, where she taught at the Lankanau School.
In the years between 1947 and 1955 she spent time abroad in India, Czechoslovakia, Sicily and Canada, settling in Washington, D.C. in 1955. In Washington she sang in the choir of St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, was a member of the church vestry, was active in the Washington Committee for Japan International Christian University and was a member of the Washington Club, the Women's National Democratic Club, the English-Speaking Union and Ikebana International.
Surviving are three children, Franklin J. Schaffner of Santa Monica, Calif., the award winning film director and producer; Dr. Isabelle R. Schaffner, former director of geriatric services at St. Elizabeth Hosptial in Washington, D.C.; and Louise Schaffner Armstrong of Washington, retired foreign service officer; and three grandchildren.
[Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, 31 Dec 1980, pg 4]
Sarah's parents were divorced by 1899, and her father had remarried to a woman named Anna (nee O'Connor) Penman, living in Joliet, Illinois in 1900. Her mother remarried to Christian Burkholder in 1904.
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