Sherri Jean Dimitt

Sherri grew up in Shawnee, Oklahoma where, as a girl, she competed in barrel races on her horse, Boots. She grew up loving cokes from the local Sonic, always half-teasing that her dad should have bought into the Sonic restaurant chain when his friend, Troy Smith, was just getting it off the ground in Shawnee. She was a Varsity cheerleader in high school, a role that suited her outgoing, spirited nature.

She went on to Oklahoma State University, where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority and had the honor of being named Miss Varsity (Homecoming Queen). She cherished her time at OSU, where she earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Elementary Education.

Sherri devoted herself fully to being a wife and mother — the two roles she said, in her own words, were the only things she ever truly wanted in life. Later, when her children were in elementary school, she went back to earn another Master’s Degree in School Counseling and served the children at Ethridge Elementary faithfully for decades. She was fiercely protective of the children in her care and of her own kids — there was no parent too intimidating, no situation too uncomfortable, for her to step into if it meant standing up for one of them. She loved her students and they loved her. One of her second-grade students called her every year on Mother’s Day for decades, a small tradition that spoke volumes about the kind of teacher, and person, she was.

To her family, she was known by many names — Bae, Grammie, Moto, Gordy— nicknames that carried a lifetime of inside jokes and love. She was passionate and opinionated, never shy about either. She was devoted to the Dallas Cowboys, watching every game — except when the tension became too much, and she’d disappear under the bed covers until the play was over. She loved a good love story and never missed Fox News. She was famously not an adventurous eater, keeping to her favorites for the better part of 30 years: Kobe steaks, Vincent’s, Neiman Marcus’ chicken salad, and Red Lobster. And no family trip was complete without “the Beast” — her impossibly heavy suitcase, which she carried herself right up until it was time for someone else to roll it.

Her love of a good story and a good time carried through her whole life — she had a cherished photo taken with Dick Clark at American Bandstand and loved telling everyone about her lifelong friend, Spike Kelley, winning the Buick Open.

Sherri was enormously proud of her beautiful red hair, and in the 1990s she got a real kick out of occasionally being mistaken for Reba McEntire —a comparison she never once discouraged.

Sherri knew every drive-thru in town with the best Cokes, and her daily trips became something of a ritual. Her warm, outgoing personality made her fast friends with the workers at her regular stops, who often slipped her a free Coke — and once even invited her to a wedding.

Even after going through some very difficult days late in life, whenever she would walk by a gardenia plant, she would smile and say, “If love had a smell, it would be a gardenia.”

Sherri faced extraordinary health battles with remarkable strength. She was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer which she fought for more than 23 years. She battled Stage 3 melanoma which required her participation in an experimental drug treatment. Just this past February, even after being intubated and at a point when doctors did not believe recovery was possible, she recovered— a testament to her extraordinary will to live and her refusal to leave the people she loved.

In a letter she once wrote, Sherri reflected that although there was sorrow and regret along the way, nothing in her life compared to the joy of her children — her heart, her soul, her life. She wrote that she wouldn’t trade one day of motherhood for anything, and that her children brought her more happiness and joy than she could ever deserve.

Her memory will be celebrated and cherished by her son, Steven Dimitt, and his wife, Emily; her daughter, Holley Themer, and her husband, Will; and her three grandchildren, Kherington, Sadie, and Michael.

She will be remembered for her fierce love, her strong will, her sharp opinions, her big heart, and the sheer force of her devotion to her family.