Sandar Autry Funeral

Sandra Autry

Sandra Faye (Matthews) Autry, 73 went to be with the Lord on Thursday, November 11, 2021 at UNC Healthcare in Chapel Hill.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 3:00 PM Sunday, November 14, 2021 at Oasis Bethany Church of God of Prophecy, officiating will be Dr. Jeff Burkhardt, Pastor Craig Autry, and Bishop George McLaughlin.  Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

The family will receive friends from  1:00 PM to 2:50 PM Sunday at the church prior to the service.

Sandra was born in Cumberland County to the late John Marion Matthews and Oma Grace Bunce Matthews.

Sandra was a loving wife, mother, grandmother or "Revered Nana" as she was called, and she will be truly missed by all who knew her.  She was with the the Ladies Auxiliary with the Bethany Volunteer Fire Department for over 53 years, was a life long member of Oasis Bethany Church of God of Prophecy.   In addition to being a member of the church, Sandra also helped in feeding over 40 families a month with the food box program, and cooked meals on Wednesday for Children's Ministry.  In cooking meals for the Children's Ministry she has prepared over 7,000 meals in a single year.

She leaves to cherish her memory her husband of 55 years, Bill E. Autry of the home; sons, William Craig Autry & wife, Lisa of Fayetteville, and Jason Byron Autry & wife, Lisa of Stedman; grandchildren, McKenzie Grace Autry, Klaybrin Zion Autry, Gabriele Faith Autry, Mason Azariah Autry, and Asher Byron Autry.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Sandra's honor to Oasis Bethany Church of God of Prophecy's Food Ministry, 7350 Maxwell Road, Stedman, NC  28391.

Services entrusted to Butler Funeral Home, 6535 Clinton Road, Stedman, NC  28391.

Fire Dept.

I feel like I should turn and smile. Unusual to be in this uniform and not see Sandra taking my picture.

Sandra LOVED the Fire Dept. - Served for over 53 years. If anything happened at the Fire Dept. Sandra was there. Now Bill may have retired as Chief, but Sandra never retired.

Last event - BBQ sale. She baked 6 cakes and said, “I got a lot more of these cakes to bake.” She did not plan on retiring!

I have many fond memories associated with the Sandra and the Fire Dept. One of my fondest was meeting Bill and Sandra and Mr & Mrs Collier at the Colliers house to cut cabbage for slaw for the barbecue plate sale. When I got there, there was a stake bed truck and I thought it was just Mr Colliers truck for the farm, but when I went around the corner on the covered patio and saw the heads of cabbage, I think that truck had hauled it in!

I used my $600 chef knife - $most of that cost was the ER to get stitches the first time I used it!

I felt like I was 10 feet tall when Sandra bragged that I sure knew how to cut cabbage! If you ever got a cooking compliment from a lady who could cook like Sandra you know what I mean. It was like Martha Stewart telling you you did good in the kitchen!

Sandra the Cook:

Sandra could cook like nobody’s business! She worked in that church kitchen forever.

You perhaps have read that we served a lot of meals here at OBC.

How it started: Todd. Bus, Conversation

We can do better. Challenge accepted. It became her mission.

Prior to the Pandemic we regularly served 5000 to as many as 7000 meals in a year.

We have a nice commercial kitchen. But started with a 4-burner household stove.

Sandra didn’t wait for the kitchen to be improved, she got busy right then.

I wasn’t much help to her in the kitchen. Sandra would say she had very little taste and smell, so on Wed aft. she wanted me to taste whatever was cooking and tell her what she was missing. I could never find anything missing!! So I was no help at all. I would just tell her it was perfect because it was.

If you have been impressed with a restaurant that offers home cooking, you never ate Sandra’s cooking.

If you though bullets just went in a gun, you never.....

If you never heard of bullets and pastry, ......

If you ever though a store bought fried apple pie was good....

If you thought dumplings were round a doughy.....

If you thought banana split only involved ice cream.....

If you thought hershey bar cake could have pre-made chocolate chips on top.....

If you ever wanted to work in the church kitchen just so you could watch Sandra make her homemade vegetable beef soup then YOU HAVE eaten Sandra’s cooking! True story!

Song “Fill My Cup, Lord” was Sandra’s mission - “Feed me till I want no more”

And if someone asked the kid who wanted more why he threw his plate away, they got the side eye from Sandra while she made him a new one and said to the kid (for the benefit of everyone) “that’s no problem them plates don’t cost but 2 cents!”

6 year-old boy’s birthday party - big deal turning 6 - who do you want to invite?

Conversation in Heaven - I was hungry and you fed me.

In the last year I have had the chance during sickness to make them some of my vegetable soup. She bragged on me again.

If she knew you loved it, it was coming sooner or later. Fried apple pies, hershey bar cake.

Senior trips! Snacks!!!

Sandra loved to laugh

Cruise movie RV - That’s Bill Autry right there!

Looking both ways.

Janus - Mythological character - face on both sides.

January.

New beginning.

We are not just looking back - we are looking forward.

1 Corinthians 15:19 NKJV

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

1 Corinthians 15:19 AMP

19 If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hope only in this life and that is all, then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied.

Tuesday - looking and seeing beyond

Never stopped fighting

2 Corinthians 5:6–8 KJV 1900

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:6–8 TPT

6 That’s why we’re always full of courage. Even while we’re at home in the body, we’re homesick to be with the Master— 7 for we live by faith, not by what we see with our eyes. 8 We live with a joyful confidence, yet at the same time we take delight in the thought of leaving our bodies behind to be at home with the Lord.