Kay Crawford

Our dear mother, grandmother, sister, wife and friend Kay Crawford departed this World June 15th, 2013 after 89 wonderful years. Born Gladys Ethel Sawyer in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Irving and Doris Sawyer, Kay grew up with a variety of caregivers as her parents worked full time to make ends meet during the depression. Raised mostly by sister Eve and her husband Sydney, Kay survived a tough youth and at 18 enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941. She was trained as an x-ray technician and rose to the Rank of Petty Officer Second Class in her three years of service to her country. After basic training at Floyd Bennett Field in New York and school in Florida, Kay volunteered and was selected for a "Singing Platoon" a collateral duty that traveled throughout the USA entertaining the troops as they deployed to, and returned from, overseas theaters. Kay was always well dressed and carried herself well as the many pictures of her alongside good looking soldiers attested to. She was Honorably Discharged in 1944.
After the War, Kay used the money she saved to purchase a brand new car and drove her and her mother across the country to start a new life in Los Angeles. Her she met Nathan Schafler (an Army Air Corps veteran) , a High School teacher and they married, had two children Marc and Jonathan. They moved from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area to raise their children.
Kay led an exciting life. She loved to travel and was one of the first visitors to China when it opened to tourism in 1973. With her second husband David Kendall,(an Air Force Veteran)l she traveled to Israel, Italy, Russia and throughout Europe.
In the 1980's Kay met her third husband Dale Crawford,( an Army veteran and German POW) and they moved to Western Oregon where they settled in Roseburg and enjoyed country drives, yard sales and visits from their grandchildren. After Dale's passing in 2008 Kay moved to West Virginia to live with her son Jonathan until 2012 when she became a resident of the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility.
She is survived by Sons; Marc and Cindy Schafler of Bend, Oregon; Jonathan and Shawn-ann Schafler of Elkins, West Virginia, and step daughter Ruth Kendall of San Rafael, California. Grandchildren Simone and Benjamin and nieces and nephews in Massachustetts.
Kay will be interned in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Roseburg, Oregon alongside Dale B. Crawford.
She will be missed.