Sara Annell Schoenvogel

Sara will be greatly missed by many. I have so many great memories of you throughout our school years and Girl Scouts. My thoughts and prayers are with your family and friends who love you so dearly. We will meet again.....

My deepest condolences to the Schoenvogel family on their loss. Peace, Sara.

We buried Sara Schoenvogel Saturday afternoon.

Precious childhood friends, Joan Dreyer Koonce, Janet Dreyer-Budde, Susan Geick, Lynn Schoenvogel Schmidt, Debbie Schindler Sager, Walt Schoenvogel, who were so wonderfully attentive to Sara in her last weeks, were gathered ‘round. We were surrounded in the old Prairie Lea Cemetery by so many who had gone before who shaped our lives; they were our great cloud of witnesses.

Even though we feel cheated that Sara died young, we are grateful that she came along at all. We are grateful for the ways she touched our lives.

Sara was the first girl with whom I danced. At nine years old, how silly we must have looked gyrating to Wild Thing, sung by the Troggs...

Wild thing you make my heart sing
You make everything groovy,
Wild thing, I think I love you

I was Sara’s date to her Senior Prom. While not Don McLean’s “lonely teenage broncin’ buck, with a pink carnation and a pickup truck”, I did wear Military Academy Dress Blues, white gloves and picked up Sara in my father’s old Volkswagen.

As she was dying, our final discussions were about important things: friendship, love, loss, death, union with God and reunion with those we love who have gone before. We found that the important questions of life have to do with love, responsibility, spirituality, and awareness.

When I finally had to say goodbye, Sara could barely speak and she struggled to raise a hand in order to give me a hug. It was a heartbreaking farewell.

We thank God for small mercies, for taking Sara and saving her further suffering. We thank God for Sara’s existence and the lessons she taught us as she died.

RIP now Sara. You fought like a trooper and now you can rest with the Angels. You'll be missed!

Walt, if I can share-Grieve not,nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me if I was beside you. It was heaven being here.
I can share, Blessed truly to have had such memories! Sara was a true soul who gave so much to all who knew her. What a legacy/true memories she has left us. We are All so Blessed.
Stephanie Burt McGlothlin

I am so sorry to hear of Sara's passing. She was a dear friend. Your family is in my thoughts and prayers.

I have been friends with Sara since 1972. My family moved here from NY that year. I was 16 and found it very hard to find friends. Sara befriended me and we have remained dear friends since. After college it would be several years before our paths would cross again. However, no matter how long in between, we resumed where we left off.

She was a very talented and giving person. Even the last few weeks of her life, she always wanted to know what I'd been up to at each visit. We would laugh and cry together.

This world has lost a truly remarkable person.

Sara will live in my memory and heart forever.

After hearing that Sara had died, I tried to think back on how long had I known Sara. I believe she was 3 years old when I first met her, thanks to my friendship with her brother and my best friend Walt.

Did I know Sara well? No, but I knew her well enough to know that she was what I would call a "Free Spirit". I would suspect that Sara lived most of her life according to her own terms and convictions. We should all be that fortunate.

Her life brings to mind a line out of a Jimi Hendrix song (If 6 Was 9):
"...I've got my own life to live
I'm the one that's going to have to die
When it's time for me to die
So let me live my life, the way I want to..."

Did I know Sara well? No, but by what I knew of her, was enough to give me a glimpse of what should make up at least part of what a life should be.

We are all on this earth for such a short time. Sara's journey through life was unfortunately much shorter than it should have been. I sometimes think that it isn't the length of a journey, but the path taken that makes life such a joy.

Thanks Sara.

My prayers and thoughts are with you.

I will miss Sara. I've known her since we worked together at Stripling & Cox. My condolences to the family.