Sarah Louise Delany - The Delany Sisters

The Delany Sisters

In 1991, Delany and her sister Bessie were interviewed by journalist Amy Hill Hearth, who wrote a feature story about them for The New York Times. A New York book publisher read Hearth's newspaper story and asked her to write a full-length book on the sisters. Ms. Hearth and the sisters worked closely for two years to create the book, an oral history called Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, which dealt with the trials and tribulations the sisters had faced during their century of life. The book was on The New York Times bestseller lists for 105 weeks. It spawned a Broadway play in 1995 and a television film in 1999. Both the play and film adaptations were produced by Judith R. James and Dr. Camille O. Cosby.

In 1994, the sisters and Hearth published The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom, a follow up to Having Our Say. After Bessie's death in 1995 at age 104, Sadie Delany and Hearth created a third book, On My Own At 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie.

Her siblings were:

• Lemuel Thackara Delany (1887–1956)
• Annie Elizabeth (“Bessie”) Delany (1891–1995)
• Julia Emery Delany (1893–1974)
• Henry Delany, Jr. (1895–1991)
• Lucius Delany (1897–1969)
• William Manross Delany (1899–1955)
• Hubert Thomas Delany (1901–1990)
• Laura Edith Delany (1903–1993)
• Samuel Ray Delany (1906–1960)

• Delany was the aunt of science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany Jr., the son of her youngest brother.

Living Relative Families: Delany, Mickey and Stent-Graham Families