Kathryn Jo Sawyer

Kathryn Jo "Kathy" Sawyer, 63, passed away peacefully at home with her family on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

Visitation: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in White's Chapel of Memories, 130 Houston Ave., Weatherford.

Funeral Service: 2 p.m., Thursday, May 8, 2025 at North Side Baptist Church, 910 North Main St., Weatherford.

Interment: East Greenwood Cemetery, 500 E. Front St., Weatherford.

Kathryn Jo Sawyer was born to Marvin Walling West and Janet Lee Graver West in Harrogate, England on November 6th, 1961. Kathy grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana along with her brothers, Gregory and Christopher West. Her hobbies as a child included ice skating, playing ukulele, singing and attending church. While in high school, Kathy attended a youth event where she gave her life to Jesus and her life was forever changed.

Kathy attended Ball State University where she achieved a Bachelors Degree in Journalism and Communication. Upon graduation in 1984, she traveled with Up With People.  While with the group, Kathy sang for the pope, performed with the 1986 Super Bowl Half-time Show, and formed a community that she would remain friends with for the rest of her life.  Kathy worked as a recruiter for EDS which would later become HP. She traveled around the country conducting one-on-one interviews for the company. This is a testament to Kathy’s giftedness in people skills and making any stranger feel like they were her friend. In 1996, Kathy was the volunteer coordinator for Bob Dole’s presidential campaign.

In the midst of a successful career, Kathy’s deepest desire was to raise a family. Her businesswoman days came to a screeching halt when her college roommate introduced her to a truck-driving songwriter from Texas. Kathy married David Stanley Sawyer in 1998 and traded her days of chasing a career to being a homemaker. Kathy and David spent the first 3 years of their marriage in Indianapolis where they had their daughter, Leah in 2001. Not long after Leah was born, the family moved to Fort Worth and finally got to Weatherford, Texas in 2003.  Kathy and David completed their family when they adopted their son, David Sergey from Kudymkar, Russia. This process of bringing David home was due to the prayers and support of their community and Kathy’s detail-oriented approach to attacking hard tasks.  Kathy took being a mom seriously and stayed at home to homeschool her kids. For the last 20 years, she has fostered a network of friends through homeschooling that will continue gathering for years to come. Many of her friends attribute this tight-knit group to Kathy's commitment to community.

The Sawyer Family began performing as a family band when Leah and son David were 7 and 5 years old. Kathy would enthuse the crowd with her emcee work and vocal harmonies while her family would provide music. As the years went by, her husband, David quit his day job to allow the family band to travel full-time. The Sawyers, along with their Mini Aussie Lomax, traveled around the country, performing in all kinds of venues from music festivals to churches. Kathy’s role as a homemaker began to encompass running a family business. For Kathy, this was not only a logistical role, but a role that involved loving on the people in front of her. As Leah and David grew older, the family band’s performance schedule slowed. Kathy began supporting her husband in his work as a caricature artist and sang with him while he led worship at Cross Timbers Bible Church.

Kathy passed away on April 29th, 2025 after a battle with ovarian cancer. She never allowed her disease to slow her down. Throughout her fight, Kathy continued to support her family and was constantly investing in community and coordinating events. Days before she died, Kathy was working on planning fiddle contests for the remainder of 2025.

Kathy was a true community builder. She loved people in every walk of life, every place she went. She refused to move on from friendships that would have been easy to let go. She made people feel deeply loved and seen and always had the right words of encouragement to share. Kathy had a genuine trust in Jesus Christ as her Savior and exuded his joy to everyone she met. She did this through the community she fostered and the family she raised. She entrusted her fight with ovarian cancer to Jesus and allowed him to carry her through every season of life. 

Kathy was preceded in death by her mother, Janet Lee Graver West.

She is survived by her husband, David Stanley Sawyer; her son, David Sergey Sawyer; her daughter, Leah Grace Sawyer; her father, Marvin (Butch) West; and her brothers, Gregory and Christopher West. Kathy has a nation-wide community of friends who feel as though they are family because of Kathy’s faithfulness to her friends and her intense love for people. She will be missed by the profound community she fostered amongst her family and across the entire country.