Karen K. Sayre, 69 of Gainesville, Georgia

Karen K. Sayre, 69, of Gainesville, Georgia died Sunday Afternoon, Aug 9, 2026, in Buford Georgia’s Addison Memory Care Center. Karen was born on Nov 20, 1956 at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

She is the daughter of Lake Watson Hickenbottom and Edna May (Raby) Hickenbottom. She met her husband Steven Sayre while working together at a restaurant in Kimbolton. They were married on Oct 5, 1974. Steve enlisted in the Air Force and entered Basic Training in December of that year. They moved to Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio the next summer. That was the beginning of a life of military service that continued until Steve’s retirement on Aug 1, 2006. Multiple assignments along the way took Karen and her family to places like Columbus, Mississippi for pilot training, Merced, California, Plattsburgh, New York, Fairfax, Virginia for Steve’s Pentagon assignment, then back to Wright Patterson AFB. After six years in Dayton Karen and her family moved to Montgomery, AL where they would spend seven years. The family’s final tour was in O’Fallon, IL near St. Louis, where Steve retired from active military service. Karen was able to travel around the country in an RV for over a year seeing the sights and visiting with family and friends. Karen and Steve eventually settled in Gainesville, GA to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Through those busy years Karen helped support her family by working at Kmart, J.C. Penny, multiple preschools as both teacher and director, and as a part-time test subject for women’s flight equipment at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton. She also volunteered on multiple inner city bus ministries and in classroom teaching to share her faith in Christ with children. Later she organized a medical transportation service for church members struggling to find rides to the hospital and worked in a clothing distribution ministry for those of our community in need. She was a true animal lover who always enjoyed the company of her cats and her golden retrievers. She loved sled riding, cross-country and downhill skiing, canoeing and rafting trips, cruising on the ocean and traveling the country to places she’d never been. She loved to camp across the country from Yosemite N.P. to Yellowstone N.P. and especially at Salt Fork for family visits and enjoy childhood memories.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents Lake and Edna Hickenbottom and a child that was stillborn. Also four nephews and nieces preceded her: Scott Allen Hickenbottom of Newcomerstown, Ohio; Brendan Wesley Millekin of Richmond, Ohio; Staci Renee Potter Maddox of Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Alisa Kay Sayre of Dover, Ohio.

Karen is survived by two sons and their wives; Thad Allen and Ashley M. Sayre of Montgomery, Alabama; and Travis Scott and Shannon M. Sayre of Buford, Georgia, as well as her sister Janice Hickenbottom Potter of Tuscaloosa, Alabama and her brother Ivan Hickenbottom of Kimbolton, OH. She is also survived by five grandchildren; Logan and Hays Clark; Nolan, Noah, and Nathan Sayre; and multiple nieces and nephews, Angela Hyde, Roger L. Potter, Eric Hickenbottom, Randi Kay Sayre, and Kelli Millekin.