Sarah Busick Kizer

With profound sadness, the family of Sarah Busick Kizer announces that Sarah unexpectedly joined her husband, Bill, in the afterlife on September 18 in McMinnville, Oregon. Sarah spent several weeks recently in Ireland with her daughter, Kathy, and her fiancé, Seamus, meeting Seamus' mother and sisters and enjoying the beauty of that country. While she died unexpectedly, it is a real joy to know her final time on earth was filled with love, laughter, family, and adventure.
Sarah was born in 1942 in Salem, Oregon, to Harold Busick and Savilla Phelps Busick. The Busicks owned a grocery store on Commercial Street in Salem and lived a few blocks away on Court Street. Sarah attended Parrish Middle School and North Salem High School, where she was a homecoming queen. She attended Oregon State University, where she was active in sorority life and met Bill Kizer, whom she married in 1964. After college, they moved to McMinnville, where Bill joined his father at Kizer Sheet Metal. After their kids started high school, Sarah worked at Kizer Sheet Metal until they both retired in 2006.
As everyone who knew Sarah knows, she loved to golf. She was a very accomplished golfer, even achieving a handicap of two for a period. She won numerous tournaments over the years, including the 1994 Senior Women's Oregon Amateur Golf Championship. Together, Sarah and Bill enjoyed golf trips, card games, and potlucks with their friends in the Sandbaggers and the Galloping Golfers groups.
Dan and Kathy have fond memories of the Busick family vacations and holiday gatherings, with Grannie and Sarah's sisters Kathy and Chris and their families, the Crockatts and the Webbers. Sarah also loved to travel. She traveled to Atlanta with her sister, Chris Webber, and her daughter-in-law, Rhonda Kizer, to visit Sarah's daughter, Kathy, and enjoyed visiting Savannah and Saint Simon's Island. In 2002, she joined a group of ten women, including her daughter, Kathy, and Shirley Crenshaw, on a two-week trip hiking throughout Switzerland. She loved the natural beauty of the mountains and the varied and unique architecture. In 2006, she joined her daughter, Kathy, on a three-week trip to Italy, where they hiked the Cinque Terra trail, visited Venice, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast, and walked countless miles around Rome.
After retiring, Sarah and Bill joined their lifelong friends, Alan and Jan Hay, on a trip through Canada and Alaska. She and Bill also visited the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park. And shortly before her passing, she spent over two weeks traveling around Ireland, listening to Irish music in pubs in Galway, Killarney, and Dingle, and soaking in the green beauty of the landscape.
Sarah was predeceased by her loving husband Bill and her sister Kathy. She is survived by her son Dan and his wife Rhonda; daughter Kathy and her fiancé Seamus; grandchildren Benjamin, Jacob and Elizabeth; and sister Chris Webber of Washington.
A celebration of Sarah's life will be held at Michelbook Country Club on Monday, October 27, from 2 pm to 5 pm. All friends and family are welcome.