Kathy Wallace Sandefur, age 72, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, June 11 at home in her sleep. Kathy was born to Charles and Lucille Wallace on September 17, 1951 in Madill, Oklahoma. She married her high school sweetheart, Gary Sandefur, on August 1, 1969 at the Cumberland, Oklahoma Baptist Church and they enjoyed 54 years of a beautiful, love-filled marriage. Kathy and Gary lived their years after college in Norman Oklahoma, Madison Wisconsin, and Stillwater Oklahoma. Most recently, they moved to Fearrington Village, North Carolina near their two grandchildren.

Kathy and Gary spent 30 years in Madison, Wisconsin, where Gary was on the faculty and served as Dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin from 2004-2013. Kathy's professional life began when she worked for Joiner Associates, a consulting firm in Madison. While at Joiner, Kathy learned the principles and methods of Total Quality Improvement, which she continued to use throughout her professional and volunteer careers.

The bulk of Kathy's professional life was focused on food insecurity and homelessness issues. Her last working position was as the Director of Outreach Ministries at First United Methodist Church in Madison, Wisconsin. Among her responsibilities was managing the Church's food pantry, which was one of the largest in the city. She also served on the Board of the Second Harvest Food Bank of South Central Wisconsin, on the Basic Needs Committee of the United Way of Dane County and on the Board of Porchlight, a nonprofit housing program for the homeless. One of Kathy's major accomplishments at the food pantry was to be among the first in the area to shift to a choice pantry, in which guests choose the food they want rather than being given a standard package of food, which they sometimes do not use.

Kathy retired from paid work in 2008 but continued as a volunteer working on homelessness and food insecurity in the Madison area. In 2014, Gary and Kathy relocated to their home state of Oklahoma, specifically Stillwater, where Gary served as Provost of Oklahoma State University. After arriving in Stillwater, Kathy looked for ways in which she could contribute to the community. She discovered a group working on developing a food and resource center for Stillwater. Kathy engaged deeply in that effort and was instrumental in creating Our Daily Bread, a food and resource center that serves Payne County. She continued to be active in Our Daily Bread after its inception, serving as a member and then Chair of the Board. One of her joys was preparing food for the lunchtime Board meetings during her tenure on the Board. She continued her engagement with Our Daily Bread after relocating to North Carolina.

Kathy was known for her boundless enthusiasm for life and deep affection for, and interest in, the people around her. Beginning in childhood, she was known as a person who never met a stranger. She had a natural talent for making everyone feel comfortable and safe in her presence. A joke within her family was that you could not go anywhere with her without her engaging with at least a handful of people on the way in and a handful of people on the way out. She was not only well liked by her closest friends, but deeply loved, and she returned that love.

Kathy is survived by Gary, daughter Becky and her wife Monica of Fountain Hills, Arizona, and son Conner and his wife Brittany and granddaughters Betty and Lucy of Fearrington Village, North Carolina. She is also survived by her siblings, Worley Wallace, Bonnie Green and David Wallace, all of Madill, Oklahoma.

In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to either Fearrington Cares (28 Swim and Croquet, Pittsboro, NC 27312, 919-542-6877) or Our Daily Bread (701 E 12th AVE, Stillwater, OK 74074 405-533-2555).