An iconic Newfoundlander, advocate and mother to one of the province’s most beloved performers has passed away.

Sara Sexton passed away today at the age of 97.

Her daughter, well-known filmmaker Mary Sexton, posted the sad news today.

Sexton calls her mother an “inspiration, not only to her family, but to all who met her.”

Sexton became a vocal AIDS advocate after her son Tommy passed away in 1993 from the disease. She was a tireless volunteer with the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador and was instrumental in getting the Tommy Sexton Centre established – for which she was honoured with the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

She leaves her eight surviving children, a large number of grandchildren and other family and friends.

Sexton will be waked at Caul’s Funeral Home on Sunday and Monday, followed by a funeral mass at Mary Queen of Peace on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

She will be returned to her native St. Mary’s where a viewing will take place at the Church of the Assumption followed by her interment in St. Mary’s Cemetery next to her late husband Ned and son Tommy.

Donations in her memory are being accepted for the Tommy Sexton Centre.