Sarah Ann Roye O'Brien's Obituary
Sarah Ann Roye O’Brien, 80, passed away on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, surrounded by her loved ones. She leaves behind a legacy of love, caring, kindness, curiosity, and inspiration.
Born in El Paso, Texas, on June 9, 1945 to Robert and Freda Roye, Sarah grew up in a military family, living around the country and in Germany after WWII. She used to talk about having attended four schools in just her senior year of high school due to her itinerant childhood.
While she was studying to be a nurse, Sarah spent some time in St. Louis where she met a young medical student, John C. O’Brien Jr. She often told the story of how she knew from the moment she first saw him that he was the one for her. She said he was “tall and very handsome,” and she acted like the party was too loud so he’d lean in closer to her. John was completely smitten with her and they married after a whirlwind courtship.
Graduating from the Mercy School of Nursing in Oklahoma City, Sarah received her RN degree in June 1967. During her time as a nurse, she worked in the ICU, the burn ward, and other departments caring for critically ill patients. She earned a well-deserved reputation as a skilled, effective, and caring nurse who could get things done.
During their almost 60 years of marriage, Sarah and John provided everyone who knew them with a shining example of what a loving, trusting, and committed relationship could be. Everyone knew, without a doubt, that they were faithful and devoted to each other for all time. Their marriage was truly an inspiration, a living demonstration of how two people can live real love in this world.
World travelers, Sarah and John visited many places around the globe, including cities and attractions all over the US, Canada, Hawaii, England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Australia, Tahiti, Brazil, and more. Their favorite place was Scotland, which they visited several times. Her final trip was a cruise to Alaska with her daughter and granddaughter in late 2025, fulfilling a lifelong goal and letting her appreciate the beauty of nature in yet one more spectacular setting. During their trips, Sarah loved to buy souvenirs. She had everything from a glockenspiel from Germany and a handwoven basket from South America to tiny kilts from Scotland for her grandsons.
An amateur Egyptologist, Sarah was a member and past president of the American Research Center in Egypt in North Texas (ARCE-NT) for many years. She possessed an extraordinary depth of knowledge and even lectured at local schools. She knew many of the most prominent professional Egyptologists in the world on a first-name basis and hosted them at her house when they would come to town. Sarah traveled to Egypt twice and received personal guided tours of various specialty museums as well as the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, and other historical sites. Her personal collection of more than 500 books and artifacts on Egypt and Egyptology, as well as more than a thousand pictures and slides taken both in museums and on-site, will be donated to a specialty library.
Sarah loved helping people and was proud to give friends and family a temporary home over the years. She welcomed, sometimes for months at a time, family friends, her children's friends, the son of her husband’s high school friend, and many others. Her home was always open to those in need.
She enjoyed travel, puzzles, word games, cooking, baking, knitting, sewing, English mysteries, sci-fi and horror movies, and studying the Bible. Her curious mind never stopped learning. Sundays were especially dear, when her family would gather to share a meal and conversation, play Scrabble or Jeopardy, watch movies, and help her around the house.
Sarah also had a passion for celebration and was always ready to host get-togethers. From an intimate gathering of a few friends to a larger fête for a special occasion, she was always at the heart of the event. She especially enjoyed the merrymaking surrounding holidays, particularly Halloween and Christmas. She would dress as the grandmother from Little Red Riding Hood and have someone else in the role of the Big Bad Wolf. She delighted in greeting the kids in costumes and passing out candy to hundreds of trick-or-treaters. For Christmas, she would transform the house with a thousand ornaments and nativities, nutcrackers, stockings, and garlands. Every ornament had a story and she happily regaled children and grandchildren alike with tales of origin and provenance so they would remember our family history.
A huge fan of horror, science fiction, and monster movies, Sarah always had time for Godzilla or a space battle. She spent countless hours passing along her love of all things kaiju and sci-fi. She even wrote “Grandmama’s Guide to Horror Movies and How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse” for her grandchildren. It included such advice as ‘Don’t read ancient magic or religious texts out loud’, and ‘If your closet door won’t stay shut, trade rooms with someone’.
Sarah was a superb cook and baker: she could prepare a feast fit for a king or something plain, simple, and hearty. She passed these skills along to her children and grandchildren every chance she got. It started with helping make Chex Mix and Christmas cookies and then moved up to her famous Italian Cream Cake, her fudge, her spaghetti sauce, her vegetable soup, and other family favorites. Her recipes, carefully curated and tested, are beloved family treasures that will be cherished and recreated for many years to come.
Sarah had a lovely voice and truly enjoyed singing. Whether it was traditional Methodist hymns, Anne Murray, Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, or The Muppet Christmas Carol, she was often heard humming a tune or singing a song.
Extremely creative and accomplished in many arts, Sarah could do many things including sewing, painting watercolor, and taking beautiful photographs. As an amateur photographer, she captured thousands of images of museum pieces and breathtaking scenery around the world. In her most advanced skill, honed over decades, Sarah was a master knitter who created dozens of intricate sweaters, adapting patterns on the fly to suit her sense of style or some other necessity. Sometimes, the work was so delicate it looked like she was knitting with toothpicks.
She had a great sense of humor, loved to laugh, and possessed a clever wit. When asked about her own legacy, she once quipped that she hoped people would remember: “She could knit and she was funny...she kept us in stitches.”
Sarah was fascinated by various aspects of life. She had generous collections of Christmas items (nativities, nutcrackers, Santas), porcelain dolls, GI Joes (especially historical soldiers in uniform), teacups, and Egyptian curios. She loved the State Fair of Texas, attending every year and later enjoying it vicariously through her grandchildren when she could not go herself.
Sarah was immensely proud of her family's military service. Her son Todd served in the US Marine Corps for twenty-four years and her grandson, Sean, currently serves in the US Navy. She beamed when showing pictures of them in uniform and never passed up an opportunity to display an American flag.
Sarah is survived by her daughter, Jennifer Kennedy (Sean Jr. and wife Alexia, Katelynd); her son John III and Gina O'Brien (Eleanor, Julia, Adam, Patrick); her son Todd and Vicki O'Brien (Michael, Matthew); her sister Jean Kneese; and her half-brothers Patrick Roye and Dean Roye. She is reunited in passing with her husband John C. O’Brien Jr.; her grandson John C. “Jack” O'Brien IV; her son-in-law Sean J. Kennedy Sr.; her parents Robert and Freda; her sister Bobbye Beard; and her brother Cliff Roye.
In her memory, please be kind to someone today and let that be one more small part of Sarah’s enduring legacy.
What’s your fondest memory of Sarah?
What’s a lesson you learned from Sarah?
Share a story where Sarah's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Sarah you’ll never forget.
How did Sarah make you smile?