Viola Sherry

Vi Sherry, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and teacher died peacefully on May 23 at Vallejo Hills Senior Center in Vallejo, California. She was born in Bakersfield, CA, September 2, 1939 to Mendell and Irma Roberts. She married her Fresno State college sweetheart, Les Sherry on July 22, 1962. Together they raised their family in Vallejo where Vi served the community as a grade school teacher for over 30 years and as a board member of the Vallejo-Akashi Sister City program. Vi loved to travel and explore the world, and could often be heard regaling the family with humorous facts and history of our destinations. She encouraged all of her children to be loving and supportive adults and good students. Vi supported our family’s participation in sports and community activities, including endless hours as a booster, leader and cheerleader for the kids participation in scouts, gymnastics, DeMolay, Job’s Daughters, baseball, wrestling, swimming, drama, and soccer. She was our most adamant supporter and seldom missed one of our events for over 20 years and spent thousands of hours sitting in bleachers to be there when we won, lost, or skinned our knees. Vi enjoyed camping and could tell stories of fighting off “meat bees” while cooking breakfast in the mountains, and exploring old logging roads with a couple of her children on her motor cycle. As an educator, Vi earned multiple diplomas and worked as a speech therapist, grade school teacher and special education teacher for over 30 years. One of her greatest pleasures was knowing she had positively impacted her students to prepare them to be successful citizens in our community. Vi enjoyed routing for her favorite teams; in the 70’s she supported the Oakland A’s and more recently she was an enthusiastic supporter of the Golden State Warriors and AZ Suns.  Upon retirement Vi and Les spent their summers in Vallejo visiting family, and winters in Sun City Grand, AZ playing with people their own age. Vi was truly a gracious and caring woman, loved far and wide! She loved, and was loved deeply by her husband and family. Vi also made friends everywhere that she went. She is survived by her husband, of nearly 60 years, Les; her four children: (Les) Michael Sherry (Suzanne), Daniel Sherry (Janelle), and Rodney Sherry (Jaimie), and Kimberly Nemic (Tom); sister: Jeannine Brown; and 6 grandchildren: Thomas Nemic, Camarin Nemic, Patrick Sherry, Alexandra Sherry, Aidan Sherry, and Owen Sherry.

On June 26th we will celebrate Vi’s life and the impact she had on her family and friends while she was with us. The celebration will be in keeping with the friendly, casual, optimistic and easy way that she lived. The event will be at the Sycamore Club House at 635 Old Orchard Drive in Danville, California.  We will begin at 11am and continue to around 3pm. Vi wouldn’t want anyone to leave hungry, so food and refreshments will be provided (no need to pack a lunch). It will be a casual affair and we will make time for people to say a few words around noon. I understand that this is short notice, and for some it is a considerable distance to travel, so please do not feel obligated in any way to attend. For those of you who can make it, we look forward to seeing you and reminiscing on shared adventures, funny stories, tough-times, easy-times, and crazy-times. I expect there will be a few tears, and more than a few smiles and laughs; and that in the end we will all celebrate what she meant to us.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in memory of Viola Sherry be made to: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, c/o Institutional & Planned Giving – Hospice Services, 1950 Franklin Street, 4th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612