Birth Date: 03/09/1939
Deceased Date: 05/23/2024
Angier, NC: Mrs. Sandra Coats Byrd, age 85, of E. Wimberly Street passed into eternal life on Thursday, May 23, 2024 at Emerald Health and Rehabilitation Center in Lillington surrounded by her loving family. Funeral Services will be 11:00AM-Saturday, June 1, 2024 at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church in Coats. Rev. David Smithey will officiate. A private burial will follow in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends from 10:00AM to 10:45AM prior to the service in the church fellowship hall.
Sandra was born on March 9, 1939 on Old Fairgrounds Road in Johnston County to the late Maynard Coats and Lena Ennis Coats. Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by beloved husband, Bernie Mack Byrd. Surviving include: her daughter, Susan Byrd Beyer; son, Brian Keith Byrd and wife, Jeanna. Grandchildren include: Grant Byrd, Maria Beyer, Matthew Beyer, Lauren Byrd, and Madison Byrd; sisters: Brenda Byrd of Benson and Sherry Stancil of Angier; numerous nieces and nephews.
Sandra attended Hardbarger’s Business College after high school. She and Bernie Mack married shortly thereafter and started their life together. Throughout their lives, in the joys as well as the challenges, they remained steadfast in love and committed to each other and their family. Sandra’s greatest joy was her family. She loved nothing more than meals or get-togethers with family, with lots of talking and joking and laughter all around.
As a result of childhood polio, Sandra faced mobility challenges on a daily basis, but she led a full and active life. She worked for 37 years before retiring with the North Carolina Department of Probation and Parole. She kept in touch with many of her coworkers, who were dear friends to her, right up until her death. She attended Angier Methodist Church, helped with the annual church bazaar, and loved the monthly meetings of the Lighthouse Ladies group in Angier.
The word most often used to describe Sandra was “joy” …she was full of joy, always smiling, always with a word of encouragement. She was an inspiration and an example to the people who knew her. Her light shone most brightly during the last 4 and a half years of her life, when she found it necessary to leave her home of almost 60 years to move into a nursing home for the last years of her life. Her prayer, if it wasn’t God’s will for her to return home, was for God to allow her to be an inspiration to the those who entered her room daily. Many people were blessed by her joy, her presence and her example. She left us all feeling blessed to know her.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, 2900 Ebenezer Church Road in Coats, North Carolina 27521. In honor of Sandra’s loving spirit, consider doing a kindness for someone, a good deed for someone who can’t repay you, visit a resident in a nursing home who is longing for company, or just say a grateful prayer to God for all He has done for you.
The family appreciates your thoughts and prayers during this time.
Arrangements by Rose and Graham Funeral Home in Benson, NC.
