After a long, productive, faithful and happy life, Sheila passed in her sleep on November 26, 2022, at the age of 93.
She was born in Cowdrey, Colorado on June 7, 1929 and was raised in a log cabin built by her father, Roy Franklin Perkins, who had successfully wooed the new schoolteacher, Nora Eileen Ferguson, and started the family. Sheila was the oldest of five siblings, followed by John, Neil, Katherine and Fred. Her father Roy ran cattle (a real cowboy) and did various jobs around the small community. Sheila learned to ride horses and herd cattle there. A couple of years after Fred was born the family moved to Placerville, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range, where Roy opened a gas station on Highway 50.
In Placerville she continued through High School, and then went to Holy Names University (then “College”) in Oakland, California, a Catholic school for women. Her plans to graduate there were interrupted by love, when she met dark handsome Joe Moura (Joseph Souza) at a Cardinal Newman Club dance. He was a Navy Veteran who used the G.I. Bill to go to Cal Berkeley. They lived in a number of spots along the East side of the San Francisco Bay, with son John Joseph and first daughter Kathleen Marie and then Teresa Anne. As Joe moved into engineering jobs, the family moved to Maryland for three years, away from both of their extended families. After three years of snow drafts and humid summers, they moved back to California, where Joe joined C&H Sugar, and they bought a new house in Concord. Since he was to retire from C&H (as a Factory Manager) many years later, the family had long time residential stability in Concord, and later in Clayton.
In Concord she bore her last daughter, Marianne, completing the family. The family took camping trips for summer vacations, often at Fallen Leaf Lake near Tahoe. Savings from camping even allowed a few trips to Disneyland, which normal folks could afford back then.
She returned to Holy Names College after Marianne started kindrgarten, and completed her degree, interrupted years earlier. She proceeded to obtain her teaching credential, but then decided not to get a teaching job, as there was a surplus of teachers on the market, and she didn’t want to take a job from a young family. She then went to work in Chevron in Concord, in management and then in the HR Department.
After she and Joe both retired, they moved from Clayton up to Lincoln, where her parents had retired and her Mom and family still lived. There they were active in the church, and volunteered for many years at the Feats of Clay Arts Show at the Gladding-McBean facility.
They then had a chance to help Marianne, now Marianne Davis, and her husband Christophe with their kids Christophe and Ondine, so they moved here to Windsor to do that.
Her religious faith was strong and constant. She was active at Most Precious Blood parish in Concord, which started De La Salle and Carondelet High Schools during the time that she was active there. Each of her children attended these high schools, and Marianne also attended the parish grade school. She helped out at the service auxiliary organizations both in Concord and later in Lincoln, and in Windsor.
After Joe passed in 2009, she moved to a smaller home in Windsor, and stayed active in the Church. In 2015 her dear friend Barbara Moretton joined her so that they both avoided living alone.
Throughout her life she joined service organizations in her community, from Placerville to Concord to Lincoln to Windsor. Cub Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, the Feats of Clay, and many other groups and causes. Here in Windsor she was still organizing The Windsor Arts Festival for years when she was in her eighties. And she was active in the Madonnas organization here for many years. She carried the sacraments to shut-in parishioners for many years.
While age had some effects and discomfort, she avoided any painful or disabling diseases. She was driving until a few months ago, when she sold her car to her hairdresser. She was completely sharp in conversations. She was doing readings at the Church until her last week. She loved doing the readings, and especially promoting church bake sales. All of the church knew her catch phrase for that: “Bring your Money, Honey!”
On Thanksgiving she hosted her grandchildren Sheila and Zach, and their families (Ariella and friend Andrew, and Zach’s wife Rika and their two year old son Takuma). The next day her niece Rhonda Welz drove her up to Lincoln, where she met with her brother John and his family. She went to sleep in a room there, and passed peacefully during the night.
She loved a good laugh, and was almost always smiling. She loved line dancing, and playing cards with friends. She valued her friends, form Placerville and Holy Names, and all of the communities she lived in thereafter. She remembered everyone, especially the little ones, and connected with them very directly.
Hers was a life of love and service, and was an inspiration to all who knew her.
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