Sheryl Lynn Brunson

Sheryl Lynn (Hopkins) Brunson, age 61, passed away on May 8, 2020, in Fort Worth, Texas accompanied by her loving husband Don after a courageous, years’ long battle with many severe medical ailments.

Service: A memorial service will be planned for later when the world is once again a safe place to gather and celebrate a wonderful, unique, and truly inspiring life.

Sheryl was born on August 8, 1958 in Killeen, Texas, beginning her life as an “Army brat”.  Her family moved to Waco, Texas in August, 1962, where they resided until 1968, and where Sheryl attended elementary school, later claiming those were the best schools she ever attended.  Her father later took a job on the Apollo moon project and the family moved to Nassau Bay, Texas, near the Johnson Space Center south of Houston.  There, Sheryl attended Clear Creek schools in Webster and League City, was quite active in nearly every organization possible, and was on the go every waking moment.  During this time she also had interesting and varied summer jobs, working as a tour guide at the Johnson Space Center for two years and then occasionally for eight more years, a summer in engineering tool development at Gulf Oil, and even one summer as an engineering roustabout for Amoco at the Hasting Field in Pearland, working out in the oilfield with the other field hands.  In 1975, Sheryl was honored by being selected to attend the American Legion Girl’s State program, and subsequently returned for several more years to serve as a counselor to guide new attendees.

Sheryl graduated high school in May, 1976 as valedictorian of her class of several hundred students at Clear Creek High School in League City, and was distinguished as the top student in the entire district.  She and Don had a running joke over who was smarter, since he was valedictorian of a rural school class of 22 students – the correct answer was never in doubt!  Sheryl then attended Rice University, alma mater of both of her parents and an uncle, where she attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering degree, and where she and Bob became the school’s first father / daughter Mechanical engineering graduates.

Upon graduation, Sheryl took an engineering job in June, 1986 in the Thermodynamics group at General Dynamics (later Lockheed and Lockheed Martin) in Fort Worth, Texas, where her father had worked in the 1950’s.  Sheryl worked as an analyst on the Environmental Control System of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, where she was seated next to another young engineer named Don. Unfortunately, during this time, Sheryl’s treasured mother, Barbara, contracted a serious illness which gradually took its toll, sadly taking her life in December, 1986 and profoundly affecting Sheryl for the rest of her life. During this time, Sheryl and Don formed an immediate, deep, and permanent friendship remarkable in its strength and steadiness, and they were married on July 21, 1999.  Despite much tongue-in-cheek bickering and arguing which amused and amazed many people, they were a wonderful match for the next 34 years, through many good times and bad.  Sheryl was an extremely dedicated, diligent, and hard worker who would pursue the assignments others didn’t have the patience to complete.  She was also part of the first large wave of female engineers in the aerospace industry, and experienced the attendant good and bad things associated with changing times.  Through it all, she was a true team player beloved by her colleagues and bosses for her hard work, helpfulness, friendliness, sincerity, and good attitude.  Although she changed positions a few times over the years as projects and organizational changes came and went, Sheryl remained a steadfast and dedicated employee at the “Bomber Plant” until December 2011.

Sheryl was a good worker because of her tremendous character.  She was honest to a fault, kind, loyal, patient, diligent, incredibly tough and resilient, and extremely sincere and caring.  She instinctively rooted for the underdog and was not afraid to speak her mind when provoked.  Just one example of her love and compassion was when her beloved 92 year old maternal grandmother “Mimi”, Hettie Stockbridge, suffered a broken hip in January, 1992.  After a long work week at a stressful job, Sheryl (and usually Don) made the trip to Houston every weekend to care for Mimi during her recovery to relieve the home-health worker, just as Sheryl had done for her ailing mother six years before.  Unfortunately, Mimi suffered another fall and re-broken hip and passed away in late April, another major heartbreak for Sheryl.  Just less than one month later, Sheryl suffered a moderately severe stroke, incapacitating her for several weeks.  Her recovery was the first of many courageous health battles that she won. However, this event began a long string of health maladies for Sheryl with which she struggled the rest of her life.  In August 1994, she was diagnosed with Stage IV endometrial cancer and given a 15% chance of survival for six months, but thanks to the supreme talents and treatment provided by Dr. Kenneth Hancock and Dr. Karen Nielsen she was able to fully recover and to live another 26 years.

After leaving work in December, 2011, Sheryl occupied her time with a number of hobbies and interests.  She was a life-long voracious reader, developing at Rice University an ability to speed-read which was quite amazing – she said it was the only way to keep up with the Rice work load.  Sheryl particularly loved reading murder mysteries and late in life the Economist news magazine, which she avidly consumed cover-to-cover while bedridden.  Unfortunately, she and Don rarely saw a book they didn’t buy, far outstripping their ability to store them.  Sheryl also had a lifelong fascination with the wonders of astronomy and loved learning about galaxies, quasars, black holes, and new findings from the Hubble Space Telescope.  She collected many books on observatories around the world and never missed a science program about astronomy.  Sheryl was also very good at games and would regularly outwit Don, to his great annoyance!

Sheryl was also an enthusiastic collector of cookbooks, significantly expanding her mother’s already very large collection.  Later, Sheryl got into quilting, buying a great deal of material but not making many quilts!  Sheryl was always a great fan and supporter of PBS and an enthusiastic viewer of their British TV comedies, mysteries, and science and news programs.  Another life-long love was dogs of all types, which Sheryl absolutely adored, particularly her beloved miniature poodle, Nicholas, who came to live with her after her Mimi’s passing.  Fluent in Spanish, Sheryl also volunteered as an assistant in Fort Worth ISD English-as-a-second-language courses.  Sheryl was also very adaptable and tolerant, gaining an enthusiasm for Don’s strange hobbies of Spanish league soccer, particularly Barcelona and Lionel Messi, and Grand Prix auto and motorcycle racing.  In the years before her health prevented it, Sheryl also loved to travel and visit new places, often to meet Don over weekends on business trips.  They enjoyed many trips all over the USA, often accompanied by Bob.  A particular favorite was San Diego, CA, which Sheryl and Don visited many times, and where they even experienced an earthquake which scared these Texans senseless but the locals ignored!

Having come from a relatively small family, Sheryl very much enjoyed visiting and being part of Don’s large extended family, whom she loved and who all loved her dearly.  At Christmas, the car was packed to the absolute limit with dozens of Christmas gifts Sheryl had bought for everyone, and Sheryl was always wonderful at writing to the elderly family and friends and remembering them with thoughtful cards, which were so appreciated.  Sheryl also loved buying dozens of gifts for the Angel Tree children at Christmas, and donated many thousands of dollars each year to many charities all over the world.

In 2008, Sheryl began to experience progressively worsening medical difficulties resulting from her intensive cancer and stroke treatments, as well as from other maladies.  These various health challenges progressively confined her at first to remaining at home, and then largely to bed, but where she continued to read and closely follow the news.  Even during this time Sheryl thought of others and enjoyed knitting toboggan caps for friends and coworkers, making many dozens of custom-order caps for the cold winter months.

Truly one of Sheryl’s greatest legacies is her amazingly positive influence on so many people’s lives.  She was loved by all who knew her, and didn’t have an enemy.  She had to bear many, many difficult and painful burdens, but always bore them serenely with absolute grace and class, and never once through all those years complained about her situation or bad fortune.  She was one of God’s greatest blessings for her family, friends, and colleagues, and we’re far better people for the inspiration provided by that wonderful blessing.

Sheryl Lynn will be sorely missed.

Her beloved mother, Barbara Stockbridge Hopkins, and uncle, Harold Stockbridge preceded her in death.

Survivors: Sheryl is survived by her devoted husband, Don Brunson of Benbrook, Texas; her father, Bob Clayton Hopkins of Benbrook; mother-in-law, Virginia Brunson of Claude, Texas; brother-in-law, Joe Brunson and his wife, Laura of Dumas, Texas; Bob’s sister, Judith Ann Rollins; her uncle, Gerald Stockbridge and his wife, Betty of Houston, Texas; two nephews and six cousins.