Cecil Ann Bowers Sayles

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Dec. 8, 1942 – March 5, 2016

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Graveside services for Cecil Ann Bowers Sayles, 73, of Fosters, Ala., who died Saturday, March 5, 2016, at DCH Hospital in Tuscaloosa, will be at 2 p.m. today at Tuscaloosa Memorial Park with the Rev. Mike Griffin of Grants Creek Baptist Church officiating.

Burial will follow under the direction of Tuscaloosa Memorial Park and Chapel.

Visitation will be from noon until 1:30 p.m. today at the funeral home.

Mrs. Sayles was a native of Tuscaloosa. She was a graduate of Tuscaloosa High School and attended the University of Alabama.

Mrs. Sayles worked 45 years with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tuscaloosa and in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she received a number of awards and recognition for exceptional performance and leadership.

She was active in retirement, serving as a U.S. Census worker and giving time to various charitable causes.

Cecil Ann was a faithful and active member of Grants Creek Baptist Church in Fosters. She enjoyed gardening, her pets, playing Canasta with a group of longtime friends, working with her Tuscaloosa High School class alumni on frequent class reunions and University of Alabama sports.

She valued her relationship with God, with her husband, her family, her friends and she lived by those values.

Mrs. Sayles deeply loved and was proud of each member of her family, routinely ending conversations with two questions: “Do you know how much I love you?” and “Do you know how proud of you I am?”

She was a kind and gracious woman, known for her sharp intellect, can-do spirit, generosity, humility and devotion to helping others. Her life and her actions were a testament to those important traits. Her long career and retirement were woven with a fabric of people who she mentored and helped succeed and with whom she formed deep bonds.

Mrs. Sayles was preceded in death by one stepson, Benjamin Sayles and her parents, Cecil Olin Bowers and Ruth Hazel Bowers.

Survivors include her husband of 30 years, Thomas Sayles; two sons, Gavin Carpenter of Centreville and Todd Carpenter and wife, Emily, of Natchez; one daughter, Tara Carpenter of Tuscaloosa; one stepson, Michael Sayles of Birmingham; two stepdaughters, Christa Sayles Harris of Boulder, Colo., and Carla Sayles Hoppe of Green Bay, Wis.; and six grandchildren, Owen Carpenter, Sam Carpenter, Eliza Carpenter, Mary Kathryn Carpenter, Jackson Carpenter and Henry Carpenter.

Pallbearers will be J.D. Beck, Owen Carpenter, Jackson Carpenter, Sam Carpenter, Henry Carpenter, Pete Peirce, Paul Roberts and Monty Stamps.

Honorary pallbearers will be members of her Be Active and Live Longer (BALL) group at the church, her Canasta group, her colleagues of the Tuscaloosa and Honolulu Departments of Veterans Affairs, her doctors and the nursing staff of Trauma and Surgical ICU at DCH.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to Grants Creek Baptist Church, 13396 Grants Creek Road, Fosters, AL 35463.