Obituary of Sandra Joan Breeding

Sandra Joan Breeding, age 82, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, passed away on July 2, 2024 from stroke complications. Sandra was born on Oct. 2, 1941, in Russellville, Arkansas but grew up in the family home in Jasper, Alabama. She was the eldest child of Elbert and Mildred Ridings. Sandra was a very quiet and private person but also incredibly brave and resilient through adversity The first evidence of this was during a house fire that claimed the life of her mother when she was a very young child. She bravely led her siblings Carolyn, Linda, and Tommy out of the burning house to await rescue. After leaving Jasper as a young woman, she moved to St. Louis, Missouri where she met her husband Verlin Breeding. They moved to Los Angeles for several years during the turbulent 60’s before settling in Louisville, Kentucky with their only child Connie. In Louisville, she worked several different jobs but found her first passion in childcare; working as a care giver at Johnsons Day Care for over twenty years. After her husband Verlin died she moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to be with her daughter and family. There she found her second passion as a senior citizen scientist; working as a technician in a research laboratory at Duke Medical Center for over ten years. She was incredibly proud of both professions. Her other passion in life was her beloved dachshunds and basset hounds. As she become a senior citizen herself she fostered and adopted several senior citizen rescue dachshunds. Sandra was also a surviver of both breast and colon cancer and proudly wore her pink. 

Sandra was preceded in death by her mother and father, Mildred and Elbert Ridings, siblings Carolyn Cameron and Tommy Ridings, and her beloved son-in-law Jim Nichols.  She is survived by her sister Linda Jackson, daughter Connie, grandsons Trey (Savannah) Nichols and Tyler (Ari) Nichols, and great-grandchildren Berkleigh, Makoy, and Henry James.