Grace Sanders, the co-founder of the Mineola American newspaper and a longtime community fixture in the village, died Aug. 19 of natural causes. She was 90.
Sanders ran the newspaper she founded with Lou Sanders, her husband of 68 years, that became “the focal point of the community,” said Tom Sanders, one of her three children. She was also a dedicated member of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce and Mineola’s Corpus Christi Parish, part of her lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church, her son said.
“She was really a hardworking woman,” said Tom Sanders, 62. “One of her philosophies was life was work interspersed with entertainment and relaxation. But her work ethic was really extraordinary.”
Grace Sanders grew up in Stewart Manor and graduated from Adelphi University in the 1940s with a degree in business administration, a rarity for women in those days, her son said. She worked in the business office at Sewanhaka High School before marrying Lou in 1948.
The couple moved to Binghamton, where Lou worked for about five years for the Binghamton Press before deciding he wanted to start his own newspaper.
Finding Mineola a good place to do so, they founded the Mineola American in 1952 and in 1953 moved into their house on Beebe Road, which served as the paper’s early office, Tom Sanders said.
Grace and Lou Sanders lived in that house for 63 years, but eventually moved their newspaper operation to 35 East Jericho Turnpike, where there was a “constant flow coming in and out of the office — people from the community, not only from Mineola but Williston Park, coming in to talk to them,” Tom Sanders said.
“They had family ties in Mineola, business ties in Mineola and religious ties in Mineola, so they were very, very involved in the community,” he said. “She really loved Mineola.”
Grace took in advertisements and sent out bills as the paper’s business manager until she and Lou sold it to Anton Community Newspapers in 1992. She would often open the paper’s books at night after finishing her housework and taking care of Tom, his brother Richard, 67, and sister Annmarie, 57, Tom Sanders said.
“I think she always planned to provide for herself or at least become a real partner in a marriage, adding on to the mom duties,” Tom said.
Lou has continued to write a column for the Mineola American called “Around Town,” which Grace edited until the last few months of her life, Tom Sanders said.
At Chamber of Commerce events and other functions, Lou and Grace Sanders were inseparable, said Steve Ford, a former chamber president and a longtime Sanders family friend. “It was so rare to see one without the other.”
Grace Sanders came to nearly every Chamber of Commerce meeting and helped with every major chamber event, including its fairs in Memorial Park that became the Mineola Street Fair, Ford said.
“She was always willing to dive in and help in whatever way she could, and you don’t see that a lot today from people,” said Ford, the owner of Willis Hobbies.
Grace Sanders was raised by a deeply religious mother and had a “very, very strong connection to the Catholic Church,” Tom Sanders said, as Lou does. They both were parishioners at Corpus Christi, where her funeral was held Monday, for as long as they lived in Mineola.
Grace’s religious devotion was passed down to her children and manifested itself in her and Lou’s work with the Mineola American, Tom Sanders said.
“My sister is actually a nun, so that came from my mom — that feeling of devotion to the church and giving back to the community,” he said. “I always felt that they felt that they were doing that with the newspaper.”
Grace Sanders is survived by her husband, three children and three grandchildren. She was buried at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury.
The Sanders family asks that memorial gifts in Grace Sanders’ honor be sent to the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the community of Catholic women to which Sister Annmarie Sanders belongs.
