Phyllis Doris (Van Meter) Sheets died April 12, 2013 at her home in Aloha, Oregon at age 91. She was born November 22, 1921, on a farm near Ada, Kansas, the second youngest in a family of 11 children. She was united in marriage to Norman Ray Sheets on August 1, 1948 and had two daughters, Sara and Marla. Phyllis and Norman’s last move was to Aloha, Oregon in 1974. Phyllis was a loving, caring and supporting wife, mother and grandmother. She was a strong independent and accomplished woman that taught her daughters to be independent and to choose any career they wanted.
Phyllis cherished and loved her family dearly. She was close to all of her siblings. Poetry, writing and reading were her passions. In the 1980s she wrote and published a book, “Belonging”, about her family and the Van Meter and Spence ancestors.
She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Kansas State University. Right after college she taught at a country high school for a year. During World War II she was a journalist for the Coffeeville Journal. She later worked for Kansas State University and the South Omaha Sun Newspaper. After that, she began medical writing. That work included writing for the University of Nebraska Medical School, Clarkson Hospital in Omaha and as the public relations director of St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Phyllis received national awards for her medical writing.
Survivors include daughters, Sara Sheets of Aloha, OR, and Marla Mueller and her husband Dale of Folsom, CA; grandchildren Brent Mueller of Sacramento, CA, Brenda Mueller of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emeritus, Andrea Mueller of San Francisco, CA, Kari Garza of Beaverton, OR; great-grandchild Christian Garza; and one sister, Alma Webster of Salina. She was preceded in death by her husband Norman; parents Abraham and Daisy Van Meter; four brothers, Francis, Lee, Louis and James Van Meter, and; five sisters, Sarah Maholland, Violet Van Meter, Lottie Umbarger, Alice Keim and Virginia Underwood.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m., Saturday April 20th at the Antioch Baptist Church in Ada. Burial will be in Fairview Cemetery. Visitation will be from 10 am until service time Saturday at the church. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society.