Sarah Marie Woods

Sarah M. Woods, 39 of Davenport, passed away on Saturday, October 5, 2024 at Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House following a brief illness. Per her wishes cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be held on November 2, 2024 at 11:00 am at First Presbyterian Church, 1702 Iowa Street, Davenport. We invite everyone to celebrate her life at this service. Memorials may be made to First Presbyterian Church in Sarah’s name. We plan to set up a special spot in the church Caring Closet that will be called Sarah’s Corner and will have smell goods, bath and body items, hair and beauty products etc. Sarah wanted everyone to know they are beautiful and they are loved. Online condolences may be expressed at www.weertsfh.com

Sarah was born on May 8, 1985 to James and Catherine Pratscher-Woods. We were truly blessed with the opportunity to adopt Sarah. She has enriched our life in a thousand ways. She was about 5 weeks premature, but always spirited and plucky. She was a Davenport girl and attended Eisenhower Elementary, Sudlow Intermediate and graduated from Davenport Central High School in 2003.

Sarah was a dancer from the time she was 3 years old and began taking ballet. She was also an artist and a number of her drawings and paintings hang in our house as well as her Aunt and Uncles home. She took art classes at the Lincoln School and Art Museum in Bettendorf for many years. She even took a few classes from prominent local artist Ralph Laccarino. She was talented in photography and won a National Geographic Award in high school for one of her photographs.

Sarah was never a great athlete but that didn’t stop her from trying many sports over the years. In middle school she did Volleyball, Track and Basketball. When she went on to high school she continued in track and loved being a cheerleader as well as dancing with the Dancing Blue Devils for one year. She was also active musically playing the flute in the band thru her freshman year of high school. She participated in church choirs into high school and even played in the bell choir as a youth.

Sarah’s major skills were her talent for fashion and organization. Her closet was a site to behold. Absolutely gorgeous. She knew where everything was and she always knew if anyone messed with it. Sarah attended the University of Northern Iowa and studied Textile and Apparel/Fashion. After leaving college she worked and lived for a number of years in downtown Chicago. She worked in retail fashion at Macy’s and especially loved working in men’s fashion. She assisted with costuming for the movie “The Transformers” filmed in Chicago. Her favorite position was working in the area of high end dog fashion for a small boutique business.

Sarah enjoyed time with friends and family and especially loved her dog, a very active, always yippy, mini-pin named Lola. Sarah was always up for a picnic and had 2 picnic baskets packed and ready to go at all times. Sarah loved sending friends care packages thru the mail and dropping off baskets of doughnuts and fun gifts for friends and anyone who helped her. She also enjoyed making scrap books of pictures for family members. She loved traveling with family and friends and seeing new places and having great adventures. She went white water rafting in Glacier National Park, snow skiing in Colorado, rode many a wild Disney World ride, cruised the Ducks in Wisconsin Dells, enjoyed a wild jet boat ride on the Niagara Falls gorge, and had fun on a Sailboat and excursion boats on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.

In the last year of her life she was happy to participate in her sister’s wedding and really enjoyed taking a family vacation to the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. She was especially grateful that a special friend, Geoff, re-entered her life and they spent a lot of happy moments celebrating her birthday, going on picnics and running the Bix this past July.

She is survived by her parents Catherine Pratscher-Woods, James Woods and her sister Cassie(Mark) [Woods] Johnson. She is also survived by many loving aunts and uncles and cousins.

Sarah was preceded in death by her grandparents: La Verne and James Woods and Earl and Margaret Pratscher.

The family would like to express gratitude to the Genesis East hospital staff including Chaplain Tami Bogosian, the Iowa Organ Donor network for their loving care as well as the staff at the Clarissa Cook Hospice House in Bettendorf.