Sherryl Kay Dawes

Funeral services for Sherryl Kay Dawes will be held on Friday, January 24th, 2020 at noon at Reed-Culver Funeral Home, with her family sharing memories of Sherryl. She will be laid to rest at Ft. Gibson National Cemetery with her father and mother.

Pallbearers for Sherryl include Dr. Steve Uloum, Tom Rapp, Bill Wright, Billie Kelley, Ben Keener, and Wyatt Athena. Online condolences for her family may be left at www.reedculver.com.

Sherryl Kay Dawes was born on Friday, July 10th, 1953, in Tahlequah, Ok, the daughter of Samson and Bessie Lee (Gourd) Dawes. She grew up as the baby in a house hold of four brothers and three sisters, Lee Keener, Callie Christine Hildebrand, Bruce Ross Dawes, Barbara Martens, Sam Dawes, Polly Jane Boyer, and Mike Dawes. She attended school at Grandview and then at age 14, she contracted polio, a disease that affected many young lives at the time. She would spend the next few years attending school in Tulsa while recuperating in the hospital at Tulsa Medical Center. She would eventually move back to the Tahlequah area and began doing her studies at the Northeastern State University, obtaining her degree with a Bachelor’s of Science and an Associates in Para Legal. Her determination and” I Can Do It Myself” spirit always saw her through. She loved to go downtown and do some shopping, you could often find her mingling with friends and sharing a laugh. She was happy curled up with a good book and she loved cooking shows and trying out the recipes, often buying the produce from the farmers market in Tahlequah. She was happy, friendly, and always in a good mood. She made friends where ever she went, and made you smile just to see her coming your way. She had three furry babies, Maggie, Mandy and Macy, and delighted in spending as much time as possible with them. Before her illness removed her ability to walk, she would take them on long walks, and she often went walking with her mother as well. Gaming was another hobby, and she could spend hours conquering a new game. A Christian by faith, she attended Northside Baptist Church. She really enjoyed time spent with her church family as well. Her health began to fail her and she was confined to her wheelchair, but her spirit and smile remained steadfast. She passed from this life on January 18th, 2020 at her home in Tahlequah. She was 66 years old and will be missed.

She is preceded in death by her mother, father, grandparents, Henry and Mariah Rattlinggourd and Daniel and Polly (Spears) Dawes. She is also preceded by her three brothers, Lee Keener Sr, Bruce Ross Dawes, Mike Dawes, sister-in-law, Dr. Colleen Tuele Dawes, and brother-in-law, James E. Martens, and two nephews, Gus Hildebrand and Ronnie Etzkorn.

Those left to cherish her memory include her siblings, Callie Christine Keener-Hildebrand and husband Dr. Jim Hildebrand of Wamego, KS, Dr. Barbara Martens of Tahlequah, Sam Dawes of Kalamazoo, MI, and Polly Jane Boyer of the home in Tahlequah. She leaves seven nephews, Lee Keener Jr and wife Beth of Claremore, Dewayne Dawes and wife LaDonna of Sand Springs, OK, Daniel Dawes of Briggs, Felix Dawes of Kalamazoo, MI, and Mikeal Dawes also of Briggs, OK. Her nieces include Janie Marie Rapp and husband Tom of Sand Springs, OK, Carole Lea and Les Dugan of Newton, KS, Lee Dawes of Briggs, Debbie Keener of Tulsa, OK, Kate Dawes, Christina Dawes and husband Mike of Broken Arrow, OK, and Michelle Dawes Studie and husband Adam of Catoosa, OK, as well as many cousins and a far reaching collection of friends too numerous to mention.