Virginia Elaine Sawyer Born March 14, 1928, in Seymour, Indiana, to Leonard Houston Elkins and Mary Hazel Blakenship Elkins. She adored her Mom and Dad. I wish all children in this world could grow up with such loving and devoted parents as Mom enjoyed. Mom grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. She was an only living child for nine years and learned to love animals as they were her only playmates for a long time. She loved her three brothers and two sisters Roy, June Carolyn, Eloise, Lloyd Ray, and Larry. June Carolyn lived only a short time. Her Grandma Elkins and Aunt Sadie had a big influence on her life. Grandma Elkins took her to the Pentecostal church which is where her faith began and took her through the rest of her life. At age 18, Mom married our Dad, Richard Lee Sawyer. Dad took Mom on a roller coaster ride at a young age moving her away from her family and the farm in Indiana to Texas. She always dreamed of living back in Indiana where her family lived. Staying in Texas and bearing most of the responsibility of raising their six children Derrell, Dianne, Charlotte, Vonda, Dwight, and Richard, Mom learned to be very strong and independent. Here is where her training as a child and her relationship with God grew even stronger. Mom and Dad had 18 grandchildren; and 18 great grandchildren. Mom loved her family and gave up a lot keeping her family together. Mom raised us with strong values and morals as she was taught. At age 36, Mom learned to drive. Wow, what a change that brought to all our lives particularly Mom's. It wasn't long until she was driving back to Indiana with the grand kids, her poodles, and a Siamese cat in tow. I'm sure there are some great stories there! Music was very important in Mom's family. As a child Mom grew up singing, playing the guitar, and piano all by ear as she could not read a note. She loved to entertain at family gatherings. When she wasn't entertaining she was reading books and making scrapbooks of all her favorite movie stars and entertainers. She still has those scrapbooks. She branched out to taking pictures of everyone and every family event with her new Brownie camera. She has an archive of family history in her picture books which we all enjoy to this day. Finally, Mom had her family raised and out on their own so it was time to go to work. Mom and Dad were divorced by now. Mom enjoyed her job at Varo with Charlotte. The thing she most enjoyed was getting off from work in the evening and going dancing til midnight. She enjoyed a lot of her evenings just dancing. She was really enjoying her life finally doing something for herself. She left Varo and went to work at Western Electric but still enjoyed dancing a couple evenings a week. Mom enjoyed the rest of her life with her family, her animals, books, music, coin collecting, and flowers. She enjoyed traveling with her children from time to time. Dementia robbed Mom of a lot like driving and some of the independence she enjoyed. Slowly she began to lose her eyesight and reading became impossible. She remained strong in her personality of who she was as a person and her faith in God. It was fun to sit in her house and thumb through her Bible and read some of her prayers she would write to God on behalf of her family and those grand kids. It is so sad to loose her but she left her family with so many good memories, so much to learn from her on making lemonade out of lemons. Her examples will always be in front of us to teach us, learning how to be content with what we have, and how to make things better for those around us. October 28, 2020, we said goodbye to the oldest member of our family, Mom. October 19, 2019, we said hello to the newest member of our family Theodore Michael Harris. She really enjoyed him. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.