Sara L. Fisher, former Newsday employee, dies at 90

Politics was Sara L. Fisher's job and her passion.

A former longtime Newsday employee, Fisher worked as a political researcher for almost two decades, assisting in the newspaper's coverage of numerous national political conventions, her family said.

"Even at the very end of her life, you could sit down and have a conversation with her on any political subject, and she could inform you of all the people and issues involved," said her nephew Henry Mazer, of East Meadow.

Fisher, 90, of Freeport, died June 4 after a long illness.

Born Aug. 6, 1919, on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Fisher attended city public schools, graduating from Seward Park High School.

Fisher was a go-getter from the beginning: "As a very young girl she worked with her grandmother selling shirts on a pushcart on the historic Orchard Street in the Lower East Side," Mazer said. She also worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard before World War II.

She met her husband, David B. Fisher, through a mutual friend, and they married in 1945.

The couple first lived in Brooklyn Heights and, according to her son Charles, were neighbors to the playwright Arthur Miller. After the birth of their two children, the family settled down permanently in Freeport in 1955.

In September 1965, Fisher began her career at Newsday. Known as "Steve" to her co-workers, she worked as a political researcher, helping with national political convention coverage, among other things.

After her retirement in February 1984, Fisher kept up with politics. "Even at 90, she was extremely intelligent - very sharp and alert," said her son, Charles Fisher of Morris County, N.J. "She was also an avid reader and took part in programs at the library that involved literature and music."

Sara Fisher was known by family and friends for her compassion: "She was extremely giving and empathetic, concerned for others more than herself, and admired and loved by everyone," her son said.

Her husband, who died in 1996, was a World War II and Korean War veteran, a lieutenant colonel in the Marines and a New York City firefighter.

Besides her son, she is survived by a daughter, Carla Newman of Freeport, and one granddaughter.

A memorial service is planned but the family has yet to announce the details.