Sherrilee Nadine Nivens

Graveside services for Sherrilee Nivens were held Thursday August 1, 2013 at 10:00 am at the Mt. Caramel Cemetery in Campo CO. Sherrilee passed away July 29 at the age of 75. Sharilee is survived by her husband Chester of Campo, Son Billy (Denise) Tomaszewski of Wichita TX, Step daughter Donna (Mike) Aragon of Fowler, Step daughter Bernice (Lyle) Huffman of Potter Nebraska, 9 grandchildren Kayla, Alexandra, Joshua, Shaun, Brianna, Joseph, Isaac, Rachael, and Jacob, as well as 2 great grandchildren Wyatt and Willow. Sherrilee Nadine Nivens was born on May 20, 1938 in Boise, Idaho. She was the youngest of seven children and had a very action-filled childhood. She always was quick to tell you of the antics of her brothers with her usually being the brunt of their jokes. She was once struck by a timber rattler and was in a coma for about three months until she could heal – she had been bitten on the farm, had to be taken by horseback to the point where they could get her into a car to be taken the 80 miles to the nearest hospital. She went to school in a small school with 30 kids in all grades combined. For her 18th birthday, she got a song sung to her by Elvis Presley and enjoyed a dance with him – he had been in the Army with her brother in Germany and had come with home for a visit with her brother. She spilled a cup of coffee on his lap when she realized who he was! After graduating from high school, she attended college at the University of California in Los Angeles for nursing, and worked hard throughout her whole life at a variety of jobs but most of which involved working with people. She worked in nursing, waited tables, cooked in a number of places, painted semi trucks, worked as a trucking bookkeeper and dispatcher and as a horse trainer, and cared for people in their homes. She lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a good part of her early adulthood, lived in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas, and finally moved to Colorado in about 1985. She married Chester Nivens on August 29, 1999 and moved to Campo then. She was known to most of her kids’ friends as “Mom,” because they all felt free to walk in unannounced to her home and could be guaranteed that good food would be available. She loved to cook and bake, and it gave her a great deal of joy to share her food with others. She also loved animals and could be counted on to have at least one in her home at any point in time. Anyone who had visited her home in Campo a few years back probably met Rem-cat and could tell you a bit about how the animals’ personalities could be said to be as ornery as hers was. She loved horses and loved riding; she could often be seen riding bareback in her flipflops. Sherri was a very straight-forward person who tended to say what she thought. She loved people and would give them the shirt off of her back if they needed it, but she could tell you to straighten up if you needed to hear that, too. She felt that her job in life was to take care of everybody and was lost if there was no one near needing taken care of. Sherrilee was preceded in death by her parents and brother Lon. In Lieu of flowers the “Sherrilee Nivens” memorial fund has been established at the Peoples Credit Union in Springfield.