Donna Lee Sauer of Mineola dies at 69

Donna Lee Sauer, a nurse who grew up in the Mineola house that her younger sister Rep. Carolyn McCarthy still calls home, died Saturday after a lengthy illness. She was 69.

Sauer, who had retired to Hampstead, N.C., died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington after problems resulting from an infection stemming from an operation a year ago.

Sauer was a licensed practical nurse and for 19 years was a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 10-01 of Wrightsville Beach. She also served as the units's public education officer.

Sauer was an avid bowler and served as a member of the board of directors of the Wilmington Bowlers Association in North Carolina. In the past, she also served as a Sunday school teacher.

"People loved her; she had the patience of a saint," McCarthy said of her sister. "She was always there for people and always giving of herself."

McCarthy recalled one man she met from the Coast Guard Auxiliary who said it was only because of Sauer that he got through a particularly difficult course, "because she wouldn't let me fail."

Born in Brooklyn on Oct. 25, 1941, Sauer moved to Long Island with her parents, Thomas and Irene Cook, in 1951 when they bought a home in Mineola. Sauer attended Jackson Avenue School, Willis Avenue Middle School and Mineola High School. While in high school, she completed a BOCES program to become a licensed practical nurse. After graduation she worked at Nassau Hospital, now Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola.

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Also while in high school, Sauer, at age 16, started dating her future husband, Jack, a student at Herricks High School. After high school, he went into the Army, and after his discharge he worked for IBM.

The couple married in 1968 and lived in Hicksville for seven years until Jack Sauer was transferred to Poughkeepsie and the couple moved to Hyde Park. The couple moved south after Jack Sauer's retirement in the early 1990s. But the couple regularly came back to Long Island in the summer to enjoy the beach, said McCarthy.

Other survivors include daughter Christine Heck of Poughkeepsie; son Christopher of Erie, Colorado; two brothers, Thomas Cook of Garden City and Peter Cook of Douglaston; and a sister, Janice Petrozzo of Kings Park.

A Mass of the Resurrection is scheduled for Tuesday at St. Jude's the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Hampstead. Burial will take place Thursday at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: Youth Education Service Fund, International Bowling Campus, 621 Six Flags Drive, Arlington, Texas, 76011.