Modena G. Sawyer

The funeral service for Modena Sawyer, age 95, will be at 10:00 AM Thursday at Anderson-Burris Funeral Home Chapel, with Rev. Kim Giles and Pastor Susan Waters officiating. Burial will be in Auburn Cemetery, southwest of Cherokee at 1:00 PM. The cemetery is on land settled by her husband’s relatives, who had come from Auburn, Kentucky. . Modena was born June 13, 1917 in Caddo County, near Eakly to Ray H. and Viola (McCully) Rexroat and died Thursday, December 6, 2012. Modena graduated from Kingfisher High School in 1935 and married Dennis H. Sawyer in 1936. They lived all of their married life in Enid, except from 1960 until 1965, when they lived in El Dorado, Kansas, and she worked at the Pond Jewelry Store. During the 40’s, Modena worked at Randall Hatchery, the Vance AFB Restaurant and beginning in 1965 she worked at C.R. Anthony’s for 35 years, and continued with their successor, Stage Stores, until they closed their Enid store in 2000. Later she worked part time at the downtown Enid Hallmark Store. Modena was a long-time member of Bethany United Methodist Church, where she held offices in the Crusader’s Sunday School Class and the Alice Miller Circle. At age 87, she felt called to put out a monthly Church newsletter. When her children were young she was a Girl Scout leader and along with her husband, helped her son achieve the Eagle Scout Award. The family enjoyed fishing, camping and traveling. At age 77, she took her third trip to Hawaii and took 79 year old sister with her. She was interested in genealogy and did much research of both the Sawyer family and the Rexroat families. She loved reunions and hardly ever missed the annual Rexroat reunion or annual Kingfisher Alumni reunions. In 1998 she helped bring 4 orphaned siblings together in a reunion after they had been separated for more than 67 years. Modena had been their baby-sitter when she was 12-13. One of her latest projects was gathering used Christmas cards and sending over 22,100 to the St. Jude’s Ranch for children in Nevada. She will be remembered for being a caregiver to her friend, Goldie Louise Green until her death in 1999. Survivors are her son, Gene Sawyer and his wife, Dorothy of Sand Springs; two granddaughters, Lori Rotramel, of Sand Springs, and Cori Moore and her husband, Adam of Pennsacola, Florida; great-grandchildren, Logan Rotramel of Sand Springs, and Autumn Moore of Pennsacola, Florida; a sister, Ruby Bomhoff of Oklahoma City; and many other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband in 1988, her son in-law Major Richard Cali in 1981, her daughter Janet Cali in 2005, and great granddaughter Cassidy Rotramel in 2010, her brother Vernie Rexroat, sisters Goldie Raines, Mary Randall, and two sisters who died in infancy.

Modena G. Sawyer

June 13, 1917 - December 6, 2012