David R. Kendrick Sr.

David Raymond Kendrick Sr., 82, of Bucyrus, passed peacefully on Saturday, January 11, 2025 at Shelby Pointe Nursing Home in Shelby, Ohio, due to failing health.

David was born June 17, 1942, in Huntington, West Virginia; however, Ronnie Kendrick, as he was referred to during his younger years, spent much of his youth growing up in Hamilton, Ohio. He entered the Army in 1959, serving as an auto mechanic, and spent some of his enlistment in Greenland before being honorably discharged in 1965.

He spent time in sales and successfully sold Paymaster checkwriters for several years. He worked for banks and started small businesses but never felt anything fit his creativity and connection to God. It turned out he had two callings: music and ministry.

As a teenager, David lost part of his finger in a farming accident. He didn't let this stop him from learning to play instruments. He glued buttons to his saxophone keys to bridge the gap for his partial finger. This adaptation led to his BMI-registered songwriting stage name, Sax Buttons. On September 28, 1975, he married Cathy Jean Warren. Together, they lived in and traveled to Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and the southern states. They played music in our country's beautiful state parks, wrote songs, and lived for several years in the Nashville, TN area. He learned guitar, and Cathy played mandolin as Blue Scarlett Buttons. For the last three decades, he gathered home studio equipment, eventually opening his recording studio, Midway Oz.

In addition to his love for recording and writing songs, David always felt a pull to ministry. In the 1970s, he responded to an advertisement to become ordained and was a street minister in Florida for a bit before finding other careers. However, he always remained inspired by Dr. Irving O. Tarbox to help others find their path to preaching the gospel. In 1999, David & Cathy started the First Church of the Gospel ministry online with David as the bishop. David didn't want to be a paper mill that ordained and left people out in the cold; he mentored and worked with the new ministers who knew him as Dr. Davy Ray Kendrick and developed a bible study program. He and Cathy touched many lives worldwide and have called Bucyrus, Ohio, their home since 2013.

David's main hobby was helping others through his work, but when he sat down for a bit of relaxation, he preferred watching the old movies he attended as a young child on TCM. He appreciated the companionship his feline fur babies offered, and whenever you saw him, he was dressed in his signature cowboy hat and boots.

In addition to Cathy, his wife of 49 years, David is survived by children, Chantel Kendrick, John F. (Linda) Kendrick, David R. (Amy) Kendrick Jr., and Kelly Kendrick; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; siblings, Donald L. Kendrick, Doris A. Colvin and Warren F. Merrell.

He was preceded in death by his parents, William E. Kendrick and Effie Jane (Freeman) Merrell; siblings, Frank Kendrick, Billy Kendrick, Neil Merrell, and Ercie Clifford; and a grandchild, Karley Borger.

David's cremated body will be privately inurned in The Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery with full military rites. If desired, donations can be made payable to The Humane Society serving Crawford County and will be accepted through Wise Funeral Service, 129 W. Warren St., Bucyrus, Ohio 44820. Expressions of sympathy are encouraged to be shared on his guestbook page at www.wisefuneral.com.