Sacha Berger Stuart, age 88, a resident of Lone Pine, California, for thirty plus years, passed away at noon, December first, 2024.

On her birth in Bern, Switzerland, cradled in beautiful rivers and the untamable Alps, she was called Ursula—”little-girl bear.” And she did adore bears, that love of animals expanding to include many other wild and tame creatures, especially elephants, and dogs. Growing up in Bern she also developed a keen curiosity about Earth’s natural and diverse beauties and cultures. In her nearly nine decades, she travelled the world extensively. As a young adult already seeking the meaning of life, she took an adventurous journey to India—exotically different than her beloved, more sedate Switzerland. This early journey stretched into a year of study and life with an Indian guru, his wife and children; they became, for her, an early “adopted family.”

Sacha’s own father died when she and her younger sister, Marian, were children, leaving their mother to raise them alone. She saw to good educations for both girls. They each were drawn to the arts. Marian became a well-known painter while Sacha became an actress. From age 19 to 29, she was a member of a highly successful, European repertory company, playing stage shows in major houses of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. This was when, in Austria, Sacha first laid eyes on her husband-to-be, an actor in the film crew of Hollywood’s The Sound of Music: Gilchrist Stuart.

Was it love at first sight?

Probably.

Gil was British. Sacha didn’t speak English, and though she spoke French and German, Gil spoke neither of those. On the set Gil was playing Franz, assistant to Captain von Trapp, played by famous actor Christopher Plummer; the two men had become good friends. Thus Christopher became Gil and Sacha’s interpreter.

Sacha and Gil spent five whirlwind, romantic days together!

Then boom! Back to the U.S. for the cast… Weeks of letters…

Then boom! “Would you consider coming to America to marry an impecunious actor?”

 “I didn’t know what impecunious meant,” Sacha always explained. “But I left the Repertoire, bought my airline ticket, and Off to America!’

Some fifteen years of joy and tragedy. When Gil became too sick to work, Sacha learned how to be a waitress in English.

But because Sacha’s mother had insisted she get a more reliable “skill” than acting as a work back-up, Sacha soon woke up that back-up skill, borrowed $600, and started “Studio Photo,” a photography business to create elegant ads, posters and other printable promotions for Hollywood’s movie industry. Slowly at first, then rather speedily, internationally successful and illustrious filmmakers hired her services, becoming clients and often friends. She once traveled with Jacques Cousteau and his crew on a filming venture in Asia.

In 20 years, Sacha grew her business to 40 employees. The hard work made her think of early retirement.

Where?

Back to Sacha’s earliest days in California: Gil saying, “I’ll take you to see the American Alps.”

“On that fateful day,” Sacha said, “I stood at the corner of Highway 395 and Whitney Portal Road and spun in a circle, entranced by the beauty, stunned by the High Sierra. ‘One day I’ll live here!’”

In the Owens Valley of Lone Pine Sacha deepened her life-long love of Beauty, Nature and travel, a love not only geographical, but cultural and spiritual, finding and befriending many national and international seekers and leaders in those realms… Sacha’s home in Lone Pine became an open-door, open-heart sanctuary she lived in herself, in such a way that she could manage to share it generously with others of diverse faiths. This she did. And thus she generously leaves it.

Neither Sacha nor her sister had children. Sacha’s survivors are not “blood” survivors. They are “chosen” survivors: truth seekers and sharers of diverse, divine visions.

An informal memorial gathering for Sacha will be held on Sunday, December 15^th from 2 to 5 p.m. at her home, 631 Thundercloud Lane, in the Alabama Hills. All her friends are invited to come honor her, sharing their memories.

Mt. Whitney Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.