Sara Lou Cargill

1928 - 2020

Sara Lou Cargill FORT WORTH -- Sara Lou Cargill passed away on Wednesday, January 8, 2020. FUNERAL: 1 p.m., Sat., Jan. 11, Arborlawn United Methodist Church, 5001 Briarhaven Rd., Fort Worth, Texas 76109. Visitation: 5 to 7 p.m., Fri., Jan. 10, Thompson's Harveson and Cole Funeral Home. MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to the music program of Arborlawn United Methodist Church. Sara Lou Young Cargill was born November 3, 1928 in Cushing, Oklahoma, daughter of Valcus and Thelma Young. As a girl, she served as organist at The First Baptist Church and for the local funeral home. She married her high school sweetheart, Robert (Bob) Cargill, also from Cushing, while attending Oklahoma Baptist University. They were partners in a storybook adventure of ministry, business, travel, and philanthropy for nearly 70 years. Bob was pastor of five churches in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas for over 20 years. Sara Lou was an accomplished musician and she played the piano and organ wherever Bob pastored, worked with young people, and taught as many as forty piano students, while raising her family. She was also a talented decorator, seamstress, and artist. She loved creating something beautiful out of something inexpensive. She would buy old furniture and make it beautiful by reupholstering or refinishing it. She loved to paint China, had her own kiln, and she always had an art room. She particularly loved to do art projects with her grandchildren, always encouraging them to paint, mold, and create something beautiful. In 1972, they moved to Fort Worth when Bob joined the staff of the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission as Vice President of Financial Resources. In 1976, he and Sara Lou founded Cargill Associates, a fundraising consulting firm which works with churches, schools, colleges, universities, and various not-for-profit organizations throughout the United States and abroad. Not only have they partnered with over 6,000 clients raising over $7 billion, they have also helped enrich and change the lives of over 650 people who have been employed by Cargill Associates. They gave generously to Christian causes and charitable organizations and provided for The Robert L. and Sara Lou Cargill Chair of Business and the Sara Lou and Bob Cargill Alumni and Advancement Center at Oklahoma Baptist University. Together they traveled the world. She was a member of Arborlawn United Methodist Church. She was preceded in death by her husband of 66 years, Robert Lee Cargill; son, Howard Wesley Cargill; granddaughter, Bonnie Ruth Lee and grandson, Robert Thomas Lee. SURVIVORS: Son, Stephen Cargill, and his wife, Ramona, of Granbury, Texas; a daughter, Sara Beth Lee, and her husband, John, of Little Rock, Ark.; a daughter-in-law, Ginger Cargill of Eastvale, Calif.; a sister, Marcia Lee Bolton of Fort Worth; and a brother, John Young, and his wife, Drucilla of Sapulpa, Okla.; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.