Sandra Marie Martin was born on April 12, 1955 in Detroit, Michigan to the union of Johnnie Martin and Donna Louise Martin. Sandra was the third of six children born to this family. Sandra confessed Christ at an early age at the Church of God of Detroit, where she served as a child and teenager.

Sandra was educated in the Detroit Public School system and graduated from Northwestern High School. Sandra was very competitive and excelled in sports. As a winning athlete, she earned medals in track and field. She was also captain of the Northwestern cheer team, captain of the swim team and a member of the school's dance troupe.  Tall, graceful and tanned, with perfect teeth and a bewitching smile, Sandra was a strikingly beautiful woman at Northwestern, so much so that she was nicknamed "Fox."

An avid outdoors person, Sandra loved family camping and fishing trips. She was also selected for and attended an Outward Bound wilderness expedition in Northern Minnesota on scholarship, where she learned to survive off the land.

After high school Sandra attended Eastern Michigan University and later Saginaw Valley College.

Sandra was a very good cook and baked the best carrot cake you've ever tasted. Sandra had a wry sense of humor and loved to tease. She also loved spending time with family and friends, playing cards, laughing and having deep conversations.  Her artistic side led Sandra to draw and to create collages and also books for her family to read.

Sandra loved and was loved by her family. She was always present at holidays and family events. She was interested in her nieces and nephews' lives, praying for them and giving them life advice.

Sandra was preceded in death by her mother and father. She leaves to cherish her memory: one brother, Johnnie Bruce Martin, four sisters, Pamela Ellen Martin-Kimbrough, Diana Leah Evans (Michael), Nancy Louise Dabney (Armand), Esther Yvette Haugabook (Alan), three nephews, three nieces, one great-nephew and a host of cousins, uncles, aunts and many friends and loved ones.