Our dear mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great grandmother, and friend, Essie Lenore Sturdivant (Sanford) of Teague, TX, passed away on June 3, 2022, at the age of 94. She was preceded in death by her husband, James Joseph Sturdivant, son-in-law Frank Dymke, grandson Steven Lee Martin, Jr., and sisters Audie Mae Harrison and Joy Dean Sturdivant.
She was a constant support and source of strength for those of us honored to know and love her. She crafted works of art with her quilts and clothing designs, her coconut cream pie tasted like magic, and she never met a garden she couldn’t set to rights. From working in a San Francisco shipyard during World War II in her teens to the meticulous way she tended the final resting place of her husband in her end years, she served God, her family, and her country in the way that Texas families have always done — by making ordinary moments sacred, loving us well when times were good and when they felt impossible, and never taking “I can’t” as an answer.
In addition to her friends in our community she is survived by daughters Sandra (Richard) Folk and Barbara Dymke, grandchildren Kimberly (Bubba) Rutherford, Cheryl Rice (John Paul Wisdom), Denny (Stacey) Folk, and Deena Martin, great-grandchildren Kyle Sessions, Trey (Casey) Rutherford, Kassie (Greg) Iwinski, Whitney (Kary) Ballew, Taylor Rice, James Logan (Alina Hudson) Rutherford, Kyle (Kennedy Vogel) Goerner, Connor Rice, Caitlin Rutherford, Camryn Rutherford, Aeren Rutherford, and Trent Rutherford, great-great grandchildren Cambridge and Townes Rutherford, Aiden, Owen, Emmett, and Evan Ballew, and Joseph and Eva Iwinski.
She was laid to rest in Cotton Gin, New Hope Cemetery, next to her husband, and many generations of her family on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
We love you, Ma
An online guest book is available at www.griffin-roughton.com
Arrangements by Griffin-Roughton Funeral Home, Fairfield
