Essig, Sara Holcomb

Obits

January 21, 2004 Saturday Journal News, Hamilton, Ohio

Sara Holcomb Essig

Mrs. Sara Holcomb Essig, age 99, passed away on Thursday, January 29, 2004, with the same quiet grace and dignity by which she lived. She was born in 1904 in Rockcastle, Kentucky, to James W. and Nancy Willis Holcomb. While she was very young, her family came to the Butler County area to secure the benefits and privileges of a good education. She attended the Kenworthy School at West Elkton and graduated from Gratis High School in 1922. She received teacher training at Manchester College, Indiana. She taught at the Central City and Silver Grove Schools in Kentucky from 1926 until 1935. She married Chalmers Essig, of Gratis, Ohio, in 1935. Having moved from the Camden area in 1939, she lived more than sixty years in the Middletown area. She was an accomplished homemaker and enjoyed traveling. She was a prodigious reader and avid gardener, paying close attention to her roses. Her long life was blessed with exceptional good health which enabled her to keep a lovely home and live independently. Always the teacher, she never missed a chance to instruct. She shared many of her fascinating life experiences in such a way as to be envied. Her youth was spent in the closing days of a bygone era when the pace of daily living was measured by the horse drawn buggy, putting food by the wood stove, kerosene lamps and one room schools. Her entire life was ruled by the old fashioned precepts of honesty, fairness, frugality and industriousness.

Sara was preceded in death by her husband, Chalmers Essig and twin infant sons. Also, her sister, Mayme Holcomb Bicknell, half sister, Stella Johnson Poff, brother James B. Holcomb, nephew John F. Holcomb and great niece Ann M. Smith and great nephew Peter Baldwin. She is survived by nieces Mary Sue Holcomb Smith, Rocky Mount, NC., Rachel Holcomb Davidson, Austin, TX., Nancy Holcomb Baldwin, Annandale, Va., and nephews Tom Holcomb of Hamilton, Oh., and Ken Poff of Middletown, Oh. Additionally, she also leaves great nieces Emily Holcomb and Laura Holcomb, Hamilton, Mary Ann Goins, Fairfield, Stacey Davidson Gall, Columbus, Elizabeth Baldwin Weedock, Redmond, WA., Catherine Smith Kibbe, Bluffton, SC., Rebecca Smith, Rocky Mount NC., Amy Poff Schenck, West Middletown and Ginger Poff McClellen, Cincinnati. The surviving great nephews are Stephen Poff, Middletown, John M. Holcomb, Andrew Holcomb, Jeffery Holcomb and James W. Holcomb, all of Hamilton, Mike Davidson, Round Rock, TX., Tim Smith, Rocky Mount, NC., and Mark Baldwin, Arcadia, FL. Also left behind is her especially kind friend Beverly Weybright of West Middletown.

The family wishes to thank the staff of Willow Knoll Nursing Facility and Middletown Regional Hospital for their care and compassion. The family respectfully suggests that memorials be given to appropriate charities.
Funeral visitation will be at Baker Funeral Home, 1500 Manchester Avenue, Middletown, Oh. from noon to 2:00 p.m. Monday, February 2. Services will be conducted at 2:00 p.m. Burial will follow immediately at the Miltonville Cemetery.