Sara Rockbell was a surgeon and the mother of Winry Rockbell. She married into the Rockbell family by wedding Urey Rockbell, Pinako Rockbell's son and practiced medicine alongside her husband. When the Ishval Civil War reached its peak, the two left their family home in Resembool to help treat the wounded on the front lines. Though both Amestrian, the Rockbells were rather well known in the Kanda region of Ishval for treating the injured on either side of the conflict. Though many, including Doctors Marcoh and Knox, viewed them as a medical inspiration and several Ishvalan people owe their lives to the husband and wife medical team, the Amestrian military officials began to view their humanitarian effort as a nuisance and sought to have them killed.
The Rockbells slain.
In the manga, Solf J. Kimblee is unofficially ordered to kill them and stage their deaths as an accident so that the military would not be forced to waste resources ensuring their protection as humanitarians of their nation, but before the Red Lotus Alchemist could arrive on the scene, the Rockbells are killed by Scar, who had just awakened in their makeshift medical center and was driven into a violent rage upon learning that his brother was dead.
Sara was a rather tenacious woman, refusing to leave Ishval with the other Amestrian civilians when given the option by her husband. She gives the excuse that Winry and Pinako would never forgive her if she abandoned her calling and reminds Urey that Rockbell women are strong (though she is only a Rockbell by marriage).
In the 2003 anime series,Sara and Urey first appear after Winry had been scared by Ed and Al's performing alchemy in front of her (transmuting a doll). The Rockbells and Trisha Elric are talking to Winry about what happened, while Ed and Al wait outside nervously. Winry is informed of the fate of her parents by Rick and Leo, two Ishvallan kids whose mother had been given medicine at their clinic, but we aren't shown images of what happened at that time. In this version of the story, the Rockbells are officially ordered executed by Basque Grand as insurgents because their Ishvalan patients would return to the battlefield after treatment. Roy Mustang is ordered to carry out the execution against his will.
Trivia
- In the 2003 anime, the Rockbells are killed before the death of Trisha Elric, but the manga marks Trisha's death as 1904 and the Rockbells' as 1908.
- In the English dub, Sara shares the same voice actress as her daughter, Winry.
- In an omake, both Urey and Sara are shown to be just as much automail otaku as their daughter.
- In the 2003 anime, Sara Rockbell is portrayed as a brunette woman.
- In the 2003 anime, Van Hohenheim noted that Winry looked a lot like her deceased mother.
- While in the Manga and the 2009 Anime, Sara and Urey are killed by Scar, in the 2003 Anime they are killed by Roy Mustang after being branded as traitors for tending to wounded Ishvalans in the Civil War.