Sarah Wadley Nix

"If Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy" During her 96 years Sarah Nix has let her presence be known on this earth. Strong, intelligent, beautiful, earthy, feisty, witty, strong-willed, athletic, intuitive, and loving, are just some of the adjectives that best describe her. Born in Macon, GA to William Morrill and Katherine Johnson Wadley, and raised in St. Mary's and Waycross, GA, Sarah graduated from high school at the age of fifteen in Waycross and from Georgia State Women's College in Valdosta, at the age of seventeen. She began teaching at the Wacona School in Waycross at the age of eighteen. In her adult years Sarah became a crack-shot and the first woman member of the NRA in Georgia, where she shot in competitions for a number of years. She hunted, fished, bowled, golfed, and was a pilot. She was also a member of various clubs and organizations including the American Red Cross, the DAR, Officers Wives Clubs and later, the Gotha Women's Club. Sarah journeyed to Texas during WWII to serve in the WASPs (Women's Air Force Service Pilots) but was deemed too short to meet the height requirements. She met Capt. William Elgin Nix, an Army Air Corp pilot and flight instructor from Clovis, NM, stationed in Bryan, Texas . They married and raised three daughters, Nancy, Sally, and Becky along with Sarah's daughter Mary Kate, from a previous marriage. The girls spanned a wide range of ages with 22 years between the oldest and youngest. The family was stationed all over the world ( Japan, Spain, California, Texas, Washington DC, Illinois, & Florida) over the next 30 years before Col. Nix retired and they settled in their family home on Lake Down in Windermere. Sarah was well known as a wonderful cook, canning the bountiful produce of their garden every year. The meals she cooked were both Southern and exotic, a blend of her Georgia roots and world travels. Sarah was a gardener and a collector of antiques with a keen eye for style, taste, and unusual treasures. Sarah died peacefully at Emeritus of Ocoee of natural causes surrounded by daughters, Hospice caregivers, and her close friend, Joy Pensala. Sarah is preceded in death by her beloved husband Bill, who died in 2006, and leaves her four daughters; Mary Kate Nix Vogen (Sissy), of Macon, GA, Nancy Ann Nix, of Windermere, FL, Sarah Nix Coffey (Sally), of Laguna Beach, CA., and Rebecca Susan Nix (Becky) of Windermere, FL. She leaves six grandchildren: Katherine Anne Vogen of Watkinsville, GA, Susan (Susu) Vogen Thomas [Jay] of Marietta, GA, William Nix Coffey, of Laguna Beach, CA., Carrie Leigh Coffey, of Pacific Palisades, CA, Hannah Ruth Powell, of Washington, DC (currently on assignment in Afghanistan), and Evan Thomas Powell, of Los Angeles, CA. She leaves five great-grandchildren: Adrian Kate Allen, of Athens, GA, Audrey Grace and Paul Foster Vogen Thomas, of Marietta, GA, Shay Leigh Stoklos and Shane William Stoklos of Pacific Palisades, CA. Private burial at family cemetery in Bolingbroke, GA. Memorial services at a future date.