Sherrie Williams

Sherrie Delela Williams passed from this earthly life to her new home in Heaven on May 16, 2025, at her home in the Clearfork Community northwest of Westville, Oklahoma, at the age of seventy-one. She was born February 25, 1954, in El Dorado, Kansas, to parents Alvin Leroy Pendergraft and Lela Frances Rich Pendergraft.

Sherrie spent her childhood in El Dorado, Kansas, where her father worked for Skelly Oil Company. She attended Oil Hill Grade School in El Dorado and Circle High School in Towanda, Kansas. In 1965, Sherrie accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior at First Baptist Church in El Dorado. In 1969, the family moved to Westville, Oklahoma, during her sophomore year in school. Sherrie graduated from Westville High School in 1972. In 1976, she graduated from Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education. Later that year, she began her teaching career at Watts Public Schools as the high school art instructor and teacher of mentally handicapped students. She later completed an additional bachelor’s degree from Northeastern, certifying her to teach students with learning disabilities.

On December 31, 1976, Sherrie married Tommy Williams at the home of her parents north of Westville. Two children, Luke Williams and Lagenna Williams, were born into this union. The family made their home on a cattle ranch on Tyner Creek in the Clearfork Community.

After her two children started school, Sherrie began teaching at Westville Elementary School as a special education learning disabilities teacher for grades three through six. She taught school at Westville for fifteen years before retiring. In 2001, a local school superintendent contacted Sherrie and persuaded her to return to teaching children with learning disabilities, this time at Skelly Elementary School in Chewey, Oklahoma. She taught there for seven more years until retiring in 2008.

Sherrie was an active member of Old Baptist Mission Church in Westville, Oklahoma, for forty-seven years. She taught Sunday School for decades and served as the church secretary.

Sherrie loved rural farm life and caring for her family. Each year, she grew a large vegetable garden and often shared fresh garden produce with her neighbors and church members. She spent hours each summer canning, freezing, and preserving produce for her family. She also enjoyed tending her flower beds and fruit trees. Sherrie was a talented seamstress and enjoyed making clothes and quilting. In the early 1980s, she began sewing and selling dresses for little girls. Later, she learned the craft of soapmaking and enjoyed creating soaps of various colors and scents.

Preceding her in death were her parents, Alvin and Lela Pendergraft, and two sisters, Frances Maxine Pendergraft and Barbra Sue Pendergraft Sackett.

Sherrie is survived by her loving husband of forty-eight years, Tommy Williams, of Westville, Oklahoma; two children, Luke Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma and Lagenna Williams Bennett and husband, Ryan, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; and four grandchildren, Clara, Clayton, Caleb, and Charlie Bennett of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.