Jennie Sawyer

Mrs. Jennie Juanita Finchum Sawyer, age 90, passed away on Monday, May 27, 2013, at her residence following an extended illness. The funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, May 31, 2013 at Bethany Baptist Church with Rev. Shep Johnson. Interment will follow at Bethany Baptist Church Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Friday, May 31, 2013, prior to the funeral service at the church. Online visitors may sign the guest register at www.iveyfuneral.com . In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, NC 28201-0001. Mrs. Sawyer was born on August 2, 1922 in Dandridge, TN to the late James Samuel Finchum and Hattie Lou McSpadden Finchum. She was an executive secretary for 11 years to the Director of Personnel for Delta Airlines in its early days of passenger service in Atlanta, GA. While at Delta, she met and married Roy. She happily spent the next 20 years raising her two sons and caring for her family in College Park, GA. During this time, she was a room mother and an active member of First Baptist Church of College Park, where she was a Sunday school teacher and a member of the Women's Missionary Union. Juanita later returned to work for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Atlanta, GA, where she was assigned the preparation of Dr. Graham's personnel schedule. After 70 years in College Park, she relocated to Douglas, GA in August of 2012 and became a member of First Baptist Church of Douglas. Juanita was a devout Christian. Her greatest pleasures were reading the Bible, sharing the Gospel, and loving others. Survivors include her husband of 66 years, Roy Garrett Sawyer; two sons, Timothy (Carol) Sawyer of Douglas, GA and Joel (Sally) Sawyer of Orlando, FL; her four grandchildren, Andrew Sawyer of Thomasville, GA, Mark Sawyer Louisville, GA, Jennie Sawyer of Highland, IN, and Sarah Sawyer of Orlando, FL; and several nieces and nephews. She was proceeded in death by, her brother, Alger Finchum; and her sisters, Eula Atchley, Ellen Grant, Estelle Hudson, and Florence Hagler.