Dorothy D. Sawyer Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Dorothy Delores (Williams) Sawyer, 96, of McCurtain, passed away Thursday, September 17, 2015 at her home. She was born July 5, 1919 in Kinta to John and Lula Williams. Growing up in a sharecroppers family meant picking cotton, children and animals to feed, from hooking up the mules to riding Ole Nubbin to deliver water to the hands in the fields. She shared the load. It wasn’t a knight on a white horse, but an unshaven cowboy with a team of mules, that she finally roped in. Dorothy and T Sawyer were married June 13, 1940. They lived near the McCurtain Coal Mines and while T and the mules built the railroad and hauled logs from the mountains, Dorothy took care of the animals. In 1948, they bought a dump truck and while T worked the mines, Dorothy hauled coal all over McCurtain for people to warm their houses. Dorothy loved to fish and she fished every pond around and no snakes or turtles stopped her. She traded her horse in for a jeep, always out in front of the herd. Out of the jeep, she always kept brewed “sweet tea” for T and the hired hands. The Brahma cows were her passion; she had most of them named and they were part of the family until she and T could no longer break the ice on the ponds. Dorothy hated garage sales but she would drive T down every dirt road and both had the gift of gab so they always met someone who knew someone and with two sharp minds, they never forgot a name or a face. In 2009, her cowboy rode away, leaving her in a wheelchair but she continued to ride on by herself in their home in Lequire. At 96 years young and in failing health, she spent her final day at home surrounded by familiar faces as she laid down her last western novel. Dorothy is survived by her son, Bruce Sawyer and wife Carol; her daughter, Joyce Sawyer of Edmond; two grandchildren, Benny and Patty Sawyer, Denise and Dwain Rigsbee; five great grandchildren; three special nephews in Arizona and Crowder , Oklahoma. She is preceded in death by her parents, John & Lula Williams; her husband T Sawyer; five siblings, Ruth, Verlin, Ruby, Grady, and Virgil. Memorial Services will be held at R. E. Shearwood Memorial Chapel, 10:00 A.M., Saturday, September 19, 2015. Cremation was under the direction of King & Shearwood Funeral Home of Stigler.

Dorothy D. Sawyer

July 5, 1919 - September 17, 2015