On the morning of Monday, August 26, 2019, Earl Dean Sayre passed away at the age of 93 at the Maryville Living Center nursing home in Maryville, Missouri. Earl Dean was born to William Ira and Lida Mae (Harmon) Sayre who preceded him in death. He was the eighth of twelve children. Earl Dean was preceded in death by his siblings, infant twins brother Lee and sister Leah (1931), Herbert (1968), Porter (1979), Elmer (1983), Seldon (1995), Harold (1997), Edward (2005), Elba (2014), Helen Harris (2014) and Dorothy Teeter (2018). He was also preceded in death by his daughter, Vickie Lynn Hartwig (2017).

Earl was born east of Milan, Missouri in Sullivan County on April 2, 1926. He graduated from Milan High School in 1944 and enlisted in the US Army in 1946. After returning from his military service, Earl returned to Sullivan County to farm with his family. He remained active in the Army Reserves from 1947-1951. Earl Dean worked for Howard Construction Company in Sedalia, MO as a Core Driller and then for the Social Security Administration in Kansas City, MO. Later he worked in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on the base from 1964 until his retirement in 1990, first at the US Disciplinary Barracks and later at the Command and General Staff College.

Earl married Margaret Helen Mereness in 1964 and they resided in Cameron, MO until 1976 when they moved to rural Kidder, MO. In 2003 they moved to Maryville, MO where they resided until his passing.

Earl is survived by his wife of nearly 55 years, Margaret Helen, of the home. He is also survived by one son, Terrance Dean Oertwig and wife Cherry, of Winnsboro, TX; two daughters, Lucinda and husband Travis Gibson of Liberty, MO., and Melinda and husband Mark Hoover, of Maryville, MO; nine grandchildren: Tiffany Daniels, Quinn Oertwig, Christy Steele-Schouten, Maycee Hoover, Trey Hoover and Gracyn Hoover, Alana Eggleston, Dylan Gibson and Connor Gibson; 9 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren, and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Throughout his life, Earl enjoyed the outdoors; arrowhead and rock hunting, gardening and any physical labor. Even as he became less active, he continued to work outdoors and had been found in recent years chopping wood from a fallen tree while sitting in a yard chair. After retirement, Earl Dean became very interested in genealogy and became an enthusiastic pen pal to many distant relatives throughout the country. He liked watching wildlife and old Western TV shows, coin collecting, wood working, reading the daily funny paper and was always game for teasing his grandchildren and nieces and nephews. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Memorial Service: pending at Bram Funeral Home, 208 E. School St., Hamilton, Mo.

Interment will be at the Highland Cemetery in a private service at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Three Rivers Hospice, St. Joseph MO.