Editorial: Sandy Thompson’s name will live on

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 5:46 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: August 11, 2002

The name Sandy Thompson stands for a lot of things in the Las Vegas community. Above all it stands for caring. Where children needed help, Sandy was there. Where senior citizens needed help, Sandy was there. Where the whole community needed leadership in its programs to help anyone, Sandy was there. Her name will forever be associated with caring because her memory will live on in Southern Nevada. Sandy Thompson, wife and mother, community leader, vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun, died Friday morning in a traffic accident while driving to the newspaper.

It was the second terrible loss last week for the Sun and the Las Vegas community. On Wednesday entertainment columnist Joe Delaney died after suffering a stroke. His 40 years in Las Vegas were dedicated to helping us come together as a community. Sandy was right there in that same spirit for the 24 years she lived here. She gave countless hours to the Christmas in April program, which gathers together volunteers to fix up the homes of senior citizens unable to afford repairs on their own. She devoted herself to high school newspaper reporters and editors and inspired all of them as they made career choices. She absorbed herself in children's issues with a passion, leading the Sun's coverage of Family Court and inspiring reporters to write more about homeless children, abused and neglected children -- any child whose circumstances warranted a story.

A newspaper exists to serve its community. Sandy Thompson was a newspaper person through and through, and she served our community through her work at the Sun and in her personal life. She was a role model for all of us. We will deeply miss her. And we feel we can speak for the whole community when we say that.