Sally (Wyatt) Griffin

GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA

December 9, 1942 - October 23, 2025

Sally Griffin, 82 passed away, Thursday, October 23, 2025.

On October 23, 2025, Sally Griffin made good on her lifelong threat to her children and anyone else who would listen that “One day I’m going to die and leave ya’ll to deal with this mess”. As a former reporter whose native irreverent streak was strengthened by years spent in newsrooms and presiding over high school classrooms, we know she would appreciate that lede.
Sally was a gifted storyteller, particularly when it came to her autobiography, and some readers of the following account of her life may be surprised to find divergences from what she told them. To you, we, her family, say, “Welcome to the club. Here’s the version that we heard.”
Sally Ann Wyatt was born to James Allen Wyatt, Sr and Lucile Hodges Wyatt in Eden, NC on December 9, 1942. She grew up in Stoneville, NC where life was organized around the shift whistle from the Stoneville Furniture Company, an ethos she would return to in her doctoral research on working class women in the South. From the beginning, she was brilliant and rebellious in equal measures, skipping enough grades to graduate from high school at 16 but not finishing her Bachelor’s degree until she was in her 20s. Sally had many hilarious stories about growing up in a town that looked sort of like the fictional Mayberry if you squinted really hard and spending time on her maternal family farm in Horsepasture, VA with her many cousins and aunts and uncles. We believe most of these stories to be based in fact and even if they aren’t, they are really funny and deserve to be repeated as if they were.
After receiving her BA in Creative Arts from UNC Charlotte in 1974, Sally worked as a freelance writer until joining the Gastonia Gazette in 1977. At the Gazette, she covered many beats, but her favorite, or at least the one from which she was able to stockpile the most lifelong storytelling material, was Courts. As a fan of southern gothic writers like Erskine Caldwell and William Faulkner, Sally knew how to identify the poignant details of the human condition and render them both funny and moving. Her best stories never made it into the paper but were told many times over a glass of wine. We believe even the most outrageous of these stories to hold a kernel of truth, but don’t quote us on that.
In 1990, Sally finally listened to the advice her parents had given her as a teenager and recognized her natural gifts as a teacher (see brilliant and rebellious above). Her second career teaching English and writing in the Gaston County Schools ended with her retirement in 2016, and was marked by her selection as a National Board Certified Teacher among many other honors. A generation of students benefitted from her ability to be both compassionate and brutally honest, unflinching in her assessments and unfailing in her support. She loved the underdog, the misfit, the hidden genius, and since these qualities describe most adolescents, it is safe to say that she loved all of her students in some capacity. It never ceased to amaze her how much they loved her back and returned to her over the years to tell her their stories.
To the surprise of perhaps only herself, Sally’s return to college for teaching certification morphed into earning a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from UNC-Greensboro, where she
turned her nose for a good story to archival research. In addition to her 2009 dissertation, ”Lintheads and Barons: Filling the Silences of the Loray Mill Strike” (viewed almost 4000 times online!), she was also the author of the local history book, Gaston Remembers and a coauthor of Thinking Out Loud on Paper. She ended her teaching career as an instructor at UNC-Charlotte and a mentor to other teachers through the National Writing Project and the Pedaia Project. Always an appreciator of a good road trip, she loved especially that her work with these groups combined mentoring with traveling and gathering stories with the many friends she met on the journey.
Sally lit into retirement just as hard as she had her other careers, and in many ways her last chapter was her best yet. She balanced multiple bridge clubs and book groups with community activism, giving generously of her time and talent to the efforts to save our democracy and fight social and political injustice. She enjoyed especially her role as the doyenne of the Forest Hills neighborhood, where she flew her Pride flag hard and was a fervent supporter of Wine and Dogs, Trivia Night, the Bourbon Club, and other community activities. As “Gramma G” or just “G”, she loved her grandchildren fiercely and strove to teach them the things that no one else could, like the correct past participle for the verb that would get their mouths washed out with soap at home and hand gestures that would either inspire other drivers to improve or ignite a road rage incident.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Max L. Griffin, Jr., though she continued to complain about him as if he were still around. Survivors include her brother James Allen Wyatt, Jr of Jamestown, NC; her children Lucy and Edward Appert of New York, NY, Tripp and Heather Griffin of Cramerton, NC, and Betsy and Fritz Grondy of Grand Prairie, TX; and her grandchildren Henry Appert, Maggie Griffin, Alex Griffin, and Emma Kate Griffin; and her faithful and adored canine companion, Laney Grace.
Sally Griffin was a force to be reckoned with, and without her, the world has less cussing and impatience with foolishness but also less passion and generosity and love for life. A memorial service followed by a celebration of Sally’s life will be held on Saturday, December 27 at 10 am at her church home of almost 50 years, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Gastonia, NC. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that you remember her with donations to either the Organ Fund or the Fund for Pets of the Homeless at St. Mark’s and telling your favorite Sally story often and indiscriminately.

The Griffin Family have entrusted arrangements to Cremation Society of Charlotte. 

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