Emma Katharine Salter, 27, of Idyllwild and Ashland, Oregon, passed away
Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, from complications of metastatic
melanoma.
Throughout her two-and-a-half-year illness, Emma was unfailingly courageous and graceful, participating fully in her care until literally the very last day of her life. All of her doctors commented on her good cheer, politeness, curiosity and willingness to take on each new therapy. Her reply was inevitable: “Let’s do it.” She left her life quietly in her own bed with her parents at her side.
Emma graduated from Idyllwild School, Hemet High School and Oberlin College. She was a writer by profession, and was a prolific and talented artist and illustrator as well. She was a brilliant student and had an extraordinary range of interests and talents.
Emma was active in music and drama throughout her school career. She was a graduate of the Performing Arts Academy at Hemet High, where she sang in vocal ensembles and acted in the theater program. She was proud of getting a coveted perfect score of 5 on the famously difficult Advanced Placement exam for Art History — a feat she repeated on the AP Calculus test.
In college, she took her degree with majors in Classics and East Asian Studies. She was a gifted natural linguist, a self-taught pianist, designed and created her own costumes, and was training as a chef before the onset of her illness.
Emma touched many lives in her unassuming, modest way. She was a kind and private person who had a handful of deep friendships and was loved by an extended family of relations extending beyond mere kinship and across four generations.
Emma is survived by her parents Mark and Sally Salter of Idyllwild; by her brothers David, Andrew and Kendall; by her sister Lauren; by her grandmother Marilyn Salter of Ashland, Oregon; and by myriad aunts, uncles and cousins. She will be fondly, but sorely, missed.
