Sarah Bogenreif Obituary
The Life of Sarah Elouise Bogenreif 1932 – 2024
Sarah Elouise Merritt was born prematurely on December 18, 1932, and was not expected to survive. The Columbus County hospital would not open until 1935 and her rural home outside of Whiteville, North Carolina, would not have electricity for several years. In addition to being born prematurely, Sarah contracted pneumonia. The odds for survival were against her, but Sarah’s fierce spirit not only overcame her birth she also survived Scarlet Fever and Malaria to outlive her family before joining Jesus on November 19, 2024, a month shy of 92-years-old.
The Merritt family had several farms outside of Whiteville, NC. Her father, George Taylor Merritt, a World War I veteran, and mother, Ovella Parker Merritt, worked their 50-acre farm. Sarah would recount that her parents slaughtered the hogs on her birthday to put in the smoke house over winter. Most of what they ate was grown on the farm. Raised on raw milk, Sarah and her two siblings worked the farm. Their home had extra mouths to feed as her mother, Ovella, the oldest in her family, raised her five siblings after her mother passed.
Sarah talked about how “dirt poor” they were during the Great Depression. Her mother made quilts from their clothing that became family treasures. Daily chores included milking the cow, gathering eggs, churning butter, pumping water from the well, caring for the animals as well as going to school. Sarah commented that their family was too poor to celebrate Christmas, it was just another day.
Sarah graduated Chadbourn High School in 1951. Soon after, she became a traveling portraiture photographer for Kinder Photos in JC Penney stores across the country. It was in the Buena Park, California store where Sarah met and later married, Robert “Bob” Allen Brooks, the father of her children. They built their life in Southern California where she found work in the secretarial pool at UCLA, as a telephone operator for Pac Bell, and ended her professional career as a school bus driver for Huntington Beach Union High School District. While she had a petite stature, she could command the high school students in her charge, or else!
Her children grew up in Rosemead, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles County, then they moved to Huntington Beach, CA in 1969. The neighborhood in Rosemead was comprised of families with many children that were known to knock on their front door asking if they could play with Mrs. Brooks. She loved children and pursued an AA Diploma in Early Childhood Education from Orange Coast College in California. Throughout her life, Sarah and her sister, Betty Turner, from Evergreen, were inseparable often talking daily and taking many trips together.
Summers were spent driving to North Carolina to help on the family farms and visit relatives, RV trips across the west, camping at Yosemite National Park and backpacking in the local mountains, as well as enjoying the area beaches. She and Bob divorced in the mid-1970s, and he preceded her death on November 8, 2022.
After her children were grown, she met Richard “Bo” Bogenreif, and they were married in April 1979 in Huntington Beach, CA. After they retired in the 1980s, Sarah and Bo relocated to Humboldt County, in Northern California. Sarah volunteered for Fortuna’s SCOP Police program, spent many years traveling the country in their RV, and enjoyed visiting with friends and family. Bo passed in their Eureka, California home on July 26, 2008, leaving behind his only daughter Melanie Cox. As a widow, Sarah would attend
church, visit with grandchildren and travel until 2019 where she began to live in Chesapeake, Virginia with her daughter, Michelle Martin.
In Virginia, Sarah would go on RV trips with her daughter and son-in-law, making friends wherever she went. Sarah loved to be active and helped however she could, gardening, walking, bible studies, traveling and home improvement projects, but what she loved the most was being with her family.
Sarah died peacefully in her sleep in her Chesapeake bed on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, with her two daughters, Karen Brooks of Bayside, California and Michelle Martin. Despite her early childhood diseases, she was “farm tough” and lived life fully. She would always comment, “God does not promise us tomorrow.” She was grateful to God for every day and her parting comment to all was to remind them that, “Jesus loves you.”
She is survived by her three daughters and son, 14 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. Oldest daughter, Michelle Brooks Martin (Chesapeake, VA) and her three children, grandson, Nathan Lachman (Brea, CA), wife Elida, and four great grandchildren Aliya, Kalyssa, Zackery, and Nathan II; granddaughter Aubree LeMay (Broken Arrow, OK) and grandson Aaron LeMay (Tulsa, OK). Second daughter Karen Brooks (Bayside, CA), husband Mark McGowan and her two children, grandson Evan McGowan (Arcata, CA), wife Jessia, and two great grandchildren Jaxon and Emma; and grandson Trent McGowan (Santa Clara, CA). Third daughter, Melanie Bogenreif Cox (Coto de Caza, CA), and her two children, grandson Brian Cox (Huntington Beach), wife Laura, and great grandchildren Kaden, Julianna, Leah and Cameron and grandson Kevin Cox (Trabuco Canyon, CA), wife Jessica, and great grandchild Ava. Son, Glenn Brooks (Vero Beach, FL) and his seven children, grandson Joshua Brooks (Huntington Beach, CA), granddaughter Ashleigh Craft (Huntington Beach, CA), husband Patrick and two great grandchildren June and Brixton; grandson Jonathon Brooks (Garden Grove, CA); grandson Justin Slorach, granddaughters Holly Slorach and Sarah Brooks (Colorado Springs, CO) and granddaughter Rachel Arganaraz (Anaheim, CA) husband Giovanni. Sister-in-law Faye Merritt (Whiteville) and her three sons, nephews Greg, Tyron and Lyndon Merritt (Whiteville). Nephew Bryan Turner (Leland) and his daughters Chrystal Rose and Ashley. Niece April Gore (Evergreen, NC) and her son, Webb and daughter Maggie.
Preceded in death include, husbands Robert Brooks (Carlsbad, CA) and Richard Bogenreif (Eureka, CA), parents George Taylor and Ovella Merritt (Whiteville), brother Frank Merritt (Whiteville), sister Betty Turner (Evergreen), brother-in-law James Turner, niece-in-law Karen Turner (Holden Beach), son-in-law John Henry Martin (Chesapeake, VA), son-in-law John Cox (Coto de Caza, CA) and nephew-in-law Frank Gore (Evergreen).
Celebration of Life services will be held in Chadborn, North Carolina at Worthington Funeral Home on Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please bless one of Sarah’s favorite organizations: Wycliff Bible Translators, Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, Tunnel 2 Towers, and/or a food bank near you.
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