On this day in Arlington history, November 13, 1929, Sara Collins was born in Detroit. She became a librarian, graduating from Catholic University with a Masters of Library Science in 1966. She enjoyed a long and illustrious career at the Arlington County Public Library where she established the Arlington Community Archives in what was then the Virginia Room—now called the Charlie Clark Center for Local history.
Collins pioneered the oral history program which interviewed Arlingtonians to capture their recollections of a by-gone Arlington. She was an officer for many years with the Arlington Historical Society and remained a life-long member until her death in 2014.
She was a member of the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, the Northern Virginia Association of Historians, Arlington Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, the Oral History Association, and the Arlington Bicentennial Committee. She was a lover of history–especially Arlington’s–and showed it in every thing she did.
