Chuck and Sarah Johns

The family of Chuck and Sarah Johns is saddened to announce that the couple was involved in an accident that took their lives.  They passed away on January 16 and 17, respectively.  They were a sweet, beautiful, and beloved couple that were married for 55 years.

Our Dad Chuck was born on April 10, 1946, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Bullard and Nan Johns.  His father was serving at the time as a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps in World War II.  Chuck was raised in Pittsburg as a 4th-generation town resident. He graduated from Pittsburg High School where he was the starting center for the Pirate football team. 

Chuck was the first member of his family to attend college. He graduated from Texas A&M University as a member of the Corps of Cadets in 1968.  He had a deep love of Aggieland and of his loyal Aggie buddies.  Unfortunately, he painfully endured all the associated football-related heartbreaks of being an Aggie.  He never experienced the national championship that was always only one year away.  He inspired a family tradition of love for his school, where 5 of his children and grandchildren have since become Aggies (so far!).

Our Dad was a “man for others.”  He spent his life dedicating himself to the people in our community.   He served for 38 total years in unpaid elected office.  This includes the Pittsburg City Council, Pittsburg School Board, and most recently on the NTCC Board of Trustees, where he was the chairman at the time of his passing. 

He was also a leader in many other local organizations.  These include the Rotary Club (where he served for 50 years), the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Museum, the Wednesday Morning Men’s Prayer Breakfast, the Community College Association of Texas Trustees Chairs Council, and more.  Chuck served as a member of the Board of Directors at Cypress Bank for almost 30 years.  At this position, he furthered the bank’s fantastic growth and developed close friendships with the entire staff.  The bank’s tellers there will miss his bad jokes and Saturday morning deliveries of coffee.   

Professionally, Dad worked at Yantis-Johns Insurance Agency for over 50 years.  He was a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and had the best business partners imaginable.  He first co-owned the agency with his father Bullard Johns, and later with his beloved friend and son-in-law Christian Yantis.  He gained tremendous satisfaction in helping people who were experiencing dark times of personal tragedy and loss.

Due to Chuck’s extensive personal interest in people and his incredible memory, he had a sizeable vault in his mind of the history of Pittsburg and Camp County.  He knew the background of every building, company, and family.  He knew a story for every corner of every street.  The Pittsburg Gazette relied on him weekly in its “Looking Back” section to review (and correct!) the content.  This task earned him his proud multi-decade free subscription to the paper.

Our Mom, Sarah, was born in Gilmer, Texas, on March 21, 1950, to Edsel and Lorrine Wade.  She graduated from Gilmer High School where she was the salutatorian and a talented majorette in the Buckeye Marching Band.  She attended part-time and later graduated from East Texas State University with undergraduate and graduate degrees in education—all while raising 3 small children.    

Sarah spent over 30 years as a teacher and educator in the Pittsburg school system, mostly teaching 4th-grade English.  She was a kind, disciplined, and demanding teacher. She once had a consecutive 5-year run where every single student in the 4th grade passed the writing portion of the statewide STAAR test.  She was nominated as the Walt Disney Company’s nationwide teacher of the Year in 2004.  Sarah is widely adored throughout our community for teaching several generations of our students.  In fact, if you are reading this obituary, there is a good chance that our Mom helped teach you to be able to read it.   

Like our Dad, Mom was also heavily involved in her community.  She served on the Pittsburg School Board for 6 years, providing wise leadership which she acquired from decades in the classroom.   She was also an active member in the Twentieth Century Club, Lions Club, and the Methodist Church.  At church, she taught her beloved “Interpreters” Sunday School class for 27 years.  In her class, she gracefully managed her monumental task of corralling and teaching a large group of jocular and often cantankerous adults.    

Mom developed a large group of life-long friends of magnificent local ladies that enriched her life beyond description.  She was a fun woman, lighting up every room she entered.  Additionally, Mom was known for her skills in the kitchen.  Not only did she provide homemade dinners to her family every night, but she also blessed her many friends with frequent dinners and meals.  We are pleased to report that her legendary recipes are all well-preserved for continued use in our family and community [insert sigh of relief]. 

In summary, our mother was the ideal “wife of noble character” that the Bible describes beautifully in Proverbs 31:10.  

Our family knew Sarah and Chuck affectionately as “Meme and Papa.”  We could not overstate our deep love and admiration for them.  Their enduring beautiful marriage is one for the ages.  They dedicated themselves completely and absolutely to each other and to their families’ development, success, character, and happiness.  They were deeply involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren in every conceivable way.  They are the guiding light for our family.  Throughout life, Meme and Papa kept us all in a firm grasp of unconditional and unrelenting love.  They are our heroes and the examples we seek to emulate.

Chuck and Sarah are survived by their children, Jenny Waters and her husband Jason of Little Rock, Wade Johns of Dallas, and Casie Yantis and her husband Christian of Pittsburg; grandchildren Jackson Yantis, Patton Waters, Wade Yantis, Major Waters, Charlie Yantis, Eleanor Waters, Caroline Johns, Grace Johns, and Kate Johns; Chuck’s sister Janie Johns of Pittsburg; Chuck’s niece Jamie Mathis of Arlington; Sarah’s sister Mary Baker of Dardanelle, Arkansas; and other very special family members and friends.

Funeral services were held on Sunday, January 26, 2025, at the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts at the Northeast Texas Community College.  The visitation was held on Saturday, January 25 at the Methodist Church of Pittsburg.  Jeff Dungan officiated the services with family and friends presenting the eulogies.  Pallbearers for Chuck were Frankie King, Jerry Becker, Luke MacBeath (representing Blair MacBeath), Hans Schuricht (representing the Texas Aggie Band Class of ’95), Steve Slinkard, and Chad Elledge.  Pallbearers for Sarah were her 5 beloved grandsons and Jason Waters.   Burial took place at Crossroads Cemetery. 

We respectfully request that donations be made to a new scholarship fund created to honor the lives of our parents.  These funds will benefit future students at Northeast Texas Community College.  This school was very dear to our Mom and Dad.  Please make checks payable to the “Chuck and Sarah Scholarship Fund” and mail them to Cypress Bank at 120 Greer Blvd., Pittsburg, Texas 75686, attention to Harold Kennington.

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