Sara Collins Medina, 77, of Wakefield, died Monday, May 18, after a short illness.

She was born in in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on July 21, 1942, to the late Owen and Sara Collins of Fairfield. A product of Fairfield Public Schools, Sara attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie New York, graduating in 1963 with an AB in Russian and Economics. Making her home in New York City, Sara was a writer/researcher for the Hudson Institute, the Indonesian Mission to the United Nations, and for many years at Time Magazine, where she headed the Russian “desk.”

On October 13, 1969, Sara married Ernesto Medina, principal architect at Burns and Roe Engineering in Orodell, New Jersey. They established a second residence in Manila, The Philippines, where Ernesto established his solo architecture practice: Collins, Medina and Haggerty. Departing New York in 1992, Sara was the writer and publisher of a scholarly, historical, journal on Philippine-American relations. In addition, she did writing and research for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Ernesto died of cancer in 1996, and within several years Sara relocated to the United States.

From 2009 to 2012, Sara raced “muscle trucks”, modified pickup trucks with enormous horsepower. Traveling tens of thousands of miles from track to track throughout the west and midwest, Sara reveled in making the trucks “fly”, and declared that there was, for her, no better introduction to the real nature of this country.

A restless spirit led to brief residences and a range of employment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as smaller towns in Oklahoma and Missouri. For the last five years, Sara was proudest of all to call Wakefield, Kansas “home”: many people and friends contributed to her happiness, but none more than her spiritual family within Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Clay Center.

Sara is survived by a brother and his wife in Albuquerque, New Mexico; a sister and her husband in South Burlington, Vermont; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

Cremation has taken place, and a service of remembrance in her Church will take place when restrictions on travel and gatherings have been eased.

Donations may be made to Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 625 Clay Center, Kansas 67432

To send an online condolence, visit www.carlsonfh.net or on Facebook.

A Carlson-Geisendorf Funeral Home, Salina, service.