Chester – Ronnie W. Sawyer, age 84, died Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at Bleckley Memorial Hospital in Cochran, from complications of influenza. Graveside services will be held Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 11:30 A.M. at Pleasant Olive Cemetery in Chester. His memorial stone will be placed at Pleasant Olive Cemetery, where his ashes will be buried after they are mixed with those of his wife, Carolyn Weathersbee Sawyer. Ronnie was born and raised near the Roddy and Dubois communities of Dodge County, Georgia. He was a 1956 graduate of Chester High School. He served approximately ten years in the Georgia National Guard where he attained the rank of sergeant and was a tank commander. As a young man in Cochran, he worked at the Colonial Store and Piggly Wiggly. During that time, he was married to Barbara Hackley nee Tripp of LaGrange. They had three children: Allen Sawyer, Darrell (Lynn) Sawyer, and Lori (Mickey) Chestnutt, all of LaGrange. He later married Carolyn, and they lived for many years in South Carolina where Ronnie managed Piggly Wiggly stores in several towns. At his own grocery store, Chester Food Mart, he and Carolyn sold everything from groceries and hardware to fried chicken and full country meals for nearly thirty-six years. Because Ronnie was fire chief, an EMT, and first responder with Chester Volunteer Fire Department until 2001, he and Carolyn, who was also a first responder, would often get up together in the middle of the night to attend to someone in need. As treasurer of the Dodge County Firefighters’ Association, Ronnie helped name many roads surrounding Chester during the establishment of the county’s 911 system. He was a member of Dexter Masonic Lodge # 340. For a time, Ronnie served as president of the Cushman Club of Georgia (now the Southeastern Cushman Club) and president of the Cushman Club of America. He enjoyed talking to and learning about people, tinkering with and restoring antiques, going fishing and shrimping on the Georgia coast, and fulfilling people’s needs and wants by selling items to them. When his store was still in operation, he especially looked forward to going to Cordele each June for loads of watermelons and cantaloupes. He was preceded in death by his parents, Wilbur A. Sawyer and Jewell Dykes Sawyer; his wife, Carolyn; his brothers, Alphus and Bobby Sawyer; his brothers-in-law, Dave Darsey and George Weathersbee; and his niece, Sonya Sawyer Jackson. Survivors include his daughter and caregiver; his aforementioned children and their families; his sisters; his brother; his sisters-in-law; several nieces and nephews; and all the people who worked for him and Carolyn at Chester Food Mart who were like an extended family to them. Special thanks are extended to Three Rivers Home Health, Bleckley Memorial Hospital, Dodge County ambulance personnel, and Agape Care Georgia. The family is at and will greet friends after the service Thursday at Pleasant Olive Cemetery.