Obituary for Sherry Freeze

Sherry Maxine Freeze

(March 23, 1941 – October 29, 2017)

The funeral for Sherry Freeze, 76, of Enid, formerly of Braman, will be 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, at Roberts and Son Funeral Home Chapel, Blackwell. Burial will follow in Braman Cemetery. Arrangements are by Roberts and Son Funeral Home.

Sherry Maxine was born March 23, 1941, in Blackwell to Otis Lawrence and Gladys Fern Irons and died Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, at Greenbrier Nursing Home, Enid. Her siblings were Robert, Lucille and Billie Joan. Sherry attended school in Blackwell, Okla., before moving with her family to the Wilburton, Okla., area and living there for a time before moving back to Blackwell, where she attended high school. She married Leon Freeze on May 25, 1958, in Blackwell. The couple resided in Braman and had two daughters, Teresa and Violet. She earned her GED and attended Northern Oklahoma College, studying nursing while serving her family as a homemaker.

She became employed as a nurse aide at Wheatland Lodge, in South Haven, Kan., in the 1970s. She loved working with the patients at Wheatland and enjoyed taking her children to the home to the delight of the residents. She then worked at Blackwell Regional Hospital, later Integris, where she was a nurse aide and ward clerk, retiring after 28 years. The care of her patients was always her utmost concern. She loved being a nurse.

She suffered a stroke in 2005 that cut short her career, but her love of life and determination to enjoy it as long as she could was evident. While she had many medical issues, she would always be smiling and fighting to remain active. She was strong woman, which made a lasting and loving impression on her daughters. Her daughter, Violet, would often call her the strongest person she had ever known. She was a hero in the eyes of her girls.

Following the death of her husband of nearly 50 years in 2007, Sherry remained in her home though severely disabled. Later, in 2010, she moved to Enid to live with her daughter Violet’s family, where she remained until 2015, when her health prompted her to move to Greenbrier.

Her hobbies included riding, caring for and loving anything horses, crocheting and needlework, coloring, writing poetry, singing hymns, shopping and spending time with her family. She adored each of her four grandchildren, Kevin, Philip, Jacob and Judah, and delighted in the time she was able to spend with her two youngest grandchildren, Jake and Jude, later in life when she moved to Enid.

Surviving are her two daughters, Teresa Stanley and her husband Glen, of Blackwell, and Violet Hassler and her husband Kevin, of Enid; four grandchildren, Kevin of Blackwell, Philip of Tulsa and Jake and Jude of Enid; her sister, Billie Joan Duncan, of Fredericksburg, Va.; her brother- and sister-in-law, Jerry and Virginia Freeze, of Beggs; and nieces and nephews and other family.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Leon, on Sept. 26, 2007; her brother, Robert Irons; her parents, Otis and Fern Irons; and her uncle, Charles Anderson.

The family wishes to extend their utmost gratitude to the nurses at Greenbrier for their care of Sherry during her time at the nursing home. Also thanks are extended to Hospice Circle of Love, which took care of her during her final days.

Memorials in Sherry’s name may be made through the funeral home to Operation Smile, which sends surgeons overseas to help children who have cleft lips and palates, healing work that was very special to her heart.