Sandy A. Arner

Sandra Ann (Carl) Arner, or Sandy as she preferred to be called, died where she wished to be, in her home in Winchester, Ohio on Tuesday, April 14 at 5 o’clock in the afternoon after a protracted, brave, and remarkable struggle against the complications of COPD.  More than once she came back from severe relapses as if from the dead—her cardiologist told her almost two years ago that he was shocked to see her still alive--but at last her almost magical resilience reached its limit.  She was 64.  Predeceased by her father, Howard M. Carl, a well-known optometrist in Xenia, she is survived by her mother, Lorna B. Carl of Kettering, her loving husband Robert D. Arner of Winchester, her sister Sharon S. Briceno of Las Vegas, her brother Mark A. Carl of Ludlow Falls, two daughters, Holly Schutte of West Chester and Heidy Thomas of West Carrollton, four grandchildren, Zachary Sloniker of Dayton , Elijah Thomas of West Carrollton, Kaitlin Schutte of West Chester, and Sam Schutte of Munster.  Also surviving are a niece, Briann Lee of Charlottesville, VA, and two nephews, Todd Huelsman of Las Vegas and Kevin Huelsman of Providence, RI.

Sandy Carl was born in Xenia on June 25, 1950 and graduated from Xenia High School in 1968.  She began learning to twirl the baton at the age of six and won many state and local twirling championships in her lifetime.  In 1967 she  became the first-ever solo and two-baton Grand National Champion of the United States Twirling Association, a feat that had not been matched before and has yet to be repeated.  Newspaper stories at the time pointed out that she had previously won the two-baton National Championship in three consecutive annual competitions. Later, while attending Wright State University, she conducted her own twirling studio in Xenia and later embarked on a varied working career outside the profession in which she had so distinguished herself.  Over time, she held several positions of importance and responsibility in the workplace, including fourteen years as dispatcher and accountant with Miller High Port Distributing, then located in Batavia, Ohio.  After Miller relocated, she was hired as the public presence and office manager of Crossroad Homes in Mt. Orab, where she was often the first person prospective home-buyers encountered and the one who finalized the paper work, including securing the necessary titles, for nearly every sale.  She was also almost always the first to arrive at her work every day, opening the office; she loved her job and did it very well.  Her radiant smile beguiled some who knew her into imagining, foolishly as things turned out, that she would even be able to soften with it the hard and relentless heart of death.  People were glad when she came into a room or a party: what better thing can one say about the effect one human being can have on another?   Few who experienced her vitality and personality will ever forget her.  Her departure leaves a vacuum and a void in many lives.

Friends and relatives are invited to gather at Cahall Funeral Home in Mt. Orab between 2 and 4 PM on Sunday, April 19 to say good-bye to Sandy and to celebrate, commemorate, and share memories of Sandy, informally, without service or sermon:  her deep love of her family, of The Wizard of Oz, of fishing, of life in general, and especially of all those who admired and loved her, to be blessed by her love in return.