Albert — Esther Fay (Deckert) Sayler, 77, passed away Saturday July 26, 2025, at the University of Kansas Health Systems – Great Bend. She was born at Larned, Kan., March 20, 1948 to Ruth (Maxwell) and Bennie Deckert. She grew up in the Pawnee Rock area, attended Bergthal Mennonite Church, graduated from Pawnee Rock High School in 1966. She received her BA in English and a minor in Psychology from Bethel College in 1970. She married her high school sweetheart, Arthur M. Sayler III, on June 6, 1971. To this union were born two children, Andrea Sayler-Siefkes and Arthur Maxwell Sayler IV (Max). Esther obtained a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Ft. Hays State University in 1980.
She taught English at Harrison Middle School from 1970 – 1975. After taking time off for her young children and obtaining her master’s degree she worked at Larned State Hospital Children’s Unit, the Center for Counseling and Consultation in Great Bend then co-founded and worked at Cedar Branch until retirement. She also directed the non-profit agency New Life For Teen Parents for two years.
Music was a highlight of her life. Esther took music lessons from the 1st grade through college, excelling in piano and organ and baritone. Her love was accompanying choirs and she did so from high school through her time at Trinity Methodist Church. She played the piano every time she babysat her granddaughters and relished the opportunity to play duets with them and other friends.
Retirement years gave her time to indulge in hobbies such as needlework, reading, cooking and sewing. She sewed hundreds of dresses for girls in under-privileged conditions. She also spent as much time as she could babysitting her two granddaughters and later attending all their various events. She loved them beyond measure.
Esther is survived by her husband, Arther M. Sayler III of Albert, Kan.; brother Warren Deckert and his wife, Denise of Kansas City and Denise’s children and grandchildren, daughter, Andrea Sayler-Siefkes and husband, Jon and their two children, August Katelyn and Madelynne Faye of Hudson, Kan. and her son, Arthur Maxwell Sayler IV of Attichison, Kan.; sister-in-law Marylou Turner of Kansas City, Mo.; and brother-in-law Donald Schultz of Overland Park, Kan.
Esther had a quick wit and a keen sense of humor, loved her women’s groups and cherished above all else her children and grandchildren who are exceptional in every sense of the word. She was extremely intelligent and the family relied upon her to spell and proofread everything. She was a prolific writer with three published books in her lifetime as well as many newspaper columns, poems, and short stories and “tales” from farmlife. The following poem was the last completed poem she wrote and shared mid-June of this year.
A NEW RHYTHM
“Flow”
“Gush”
Origins for our word “rhythm”
Rhythm is Inherent in nature’s music
The courtship of birds
The distant rumble of jungle elephants
The snarl of a dirigible
The vibration of a 32 foot organ pipe
Rhythm is inherent in life’s music too
Ecclesiastes speaks to it
“A time to be born...”
“A time to plant...”
My early life had a rhythm
Get up
Get dressed
Work
Rural Kansas Mennonites had a rhythm
Everyone does, I suppose,
For us
Plant Turkey red wheat seeds in the fall
With faith they were planted
Surrendering them to snuggle into the black, cold soil
We would wait
Waiting for their time to be born
To sprout in the weak sunshine of early spring
Break out of the blackness
And grow into golden stalks
With wispy white beards
Plump little kernels
Bowing in the Kansas sun and wind
And then- -the triumphal season
Harvest
“A time to reap...”
Certainly a flow
Hopefully a gush
A gush of wheat
Into the combine, the truck, the elevator
Into our daily bread
Harvest rhythm disrupted the regular beat
The regular, measured beat of our lives
A kind of Syncopation certainly
The predictable, routine beat was bent
The sounds different
The bass of men’s voices
Carried across the fields
The combine snarl
The trucks’ pipes rumble and vibration
Powerful
Housework became less important
Food quicker, cooler,
Transportable to the field
Eaten in the shade of wheat trucks
A dance between harvest need and hunger,
A courtship between expediency and weather
Moms drive wheat trucks
Kids play in the wheat
Get by snacking on potato chips and candy bars
For 30 plus years it was my rhythm too
I loved the Kansas jungle sounds
The “exotic” food
The gush of adrenaline
The syncopation of routine life
The rhythm of harvest
For me... .
That rhythm is gone now
And many songs silent as well
The elephants are gone
Courtships over
Dirigible broken
Organ pipes silent
I’m old
No longer a part of the jungle
I grieve its loss
I miss the verdant life
Crave the syncopation
I need a map
The directions to a new jungle
The reawakening of a rhythm
A new flow,
A gush of a new, green, growing life
Esther F. (Deckert) Sayler, written June 19 2025
Cremation has taken place with memorial services to be held 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Bryant Funeral Home, with Pastor Wade Russell presiding. Visitation will take place noon until 8 p.m., Thursday, July 31, with the family receiving friends from 6 to 7 p.m., all at Bryant Funeral Home. Inurnment will take place at a later date at Great Bend Cemetery. In lieu of flowers memorials may be given to the Family Crisis Center, in care of Bryant Funeral Home, 1425 Patton Rd., Great Bend, KS 67530.
Funeral arrangements provided by
Bryant Funeral Home
1425 Patton Road
Great Bend, KS 67530
Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune, July 29, 2025
