Swartzendruber, Sara Slabaugh (1904-2002)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2002 Oct 21 p. 16

Birth date: 1904 Jan 7

text of obituary:

SARA SWARTZENDRUBER

Sara Swartzendruber, 98, of Hydro, Okla., died Oct. 2, 2002, at Maple Lawn Nursing Home. She was born Jan. 7, 1904, to Moses and Lydia (Yoder) Slabaugh in Madison County, Ohio.

She grew up in the Hartville, Ohio, area and finished her formal education at Eastern Mennonite School in Harrisonburg, Va. She worked as a live-in housekeeper for families in Canton, Ohio, and Reading and Altoona, Pa.

In 1936, while serving as a childcare worker at the Mennonite Children's Home in Kansas City, Kan., she met Fred R. Swartzendruber. On Dec. 19, 1937, they were married and then moved to his farm northwest of Hydro. She was an active member of Pleasant View Mennonite Church of Hydro.

In 1946 they moved to Kansas City to help with a mission church. For two years she and her husband served as administrators of the Mennonite Children's Home, living in the home with their two young children. After that they remained in the Kansas City area and served at Argentine Mennonite Church.

She served in the Sunday school and vacation Bible school programs and as director of the weekday Bible school program. She also did volunteer work with the Red Cross and at a day care center for children with cerebral palsy.

In May 1974 they moved back to Hydro, where she continued her love of gardening, needlework, quilting, reading and church work at Pleasant View Mennonite. Besides traveling to Ohio frequently, they traveled to Alaska, Florida, California, Central America and to Malawi in Africa.

Survivors include two children, Ruth Ann Swartzendruber of Hydro and Robert and his wife, Bonnie, of Plano, Texas; two grandsons and two great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Fred; four brothers and five sisters.

Funeral services were held at Pleasant View Mennonite Church. Burial was in Pleasant View Mennonite Cemetery.