Sherma Fae Stanger Mildon — loving wife, mother, sister and friend — passed away in her home on May 19, 2023. Her husband of 66 years, Luke, and their three children were by her side.

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Throughout her entire life, Sherma’s family was her top priority. Luke described her as his “right-hand person.” She helped him with everything life brought their way, from building their home in Uintah to raising their family. Luke said she was a “supermom” who took care of Brian, Sonya (Hill) and Melinda (Rhodes) when he was frequently on the road for work. Her role as the home economics president at Wahlquist Jr. High is evidence that even before she met Luke at Weber High School, she had goals to be a great homemaker.

Sherma’s children and grandchildren all have fond memories of reading with her. They would snuggle up on the couch and flip through picture books together. Trips to the library with her were frequent, favorite outings. She shared her love of reading with friends of her children as well, walking to the Bookmobile with them and inviting them back to the house to read beneath the shade of the trampoline.

Sherma was a wonderful seamstress and enjoyed making clothing. She could sew a pair of shorts and a shirt in a day. Luke often wore western shirts she made for him. When Sonya married, Sherma patterned and sewed her daughter’s lace gown to look like the one she wore on her wedding day. She also made square dancing dresses for herself that swished beautifully with every swing.

Early in their marriage, Luke and Sherma joined the Double J Rustlers square dancing group and made lifelong friends. Their circle took many motorcycle trips together, had regular card game nights and played pranks on one another. Even as they aged, this bunch continued to be a bit mischievous.

Luke seemed to be on the receiving end more frequently than the others, often because Sherma stealthily recruited their friends to pull stunts on her behalf. But don’t think for a minute that she was afraid to reach into her own bag of tricks. Sherma’s quiet, innocent demeanor only made the timing of her actions that much funnier. No one expected her to give them a face full of shaving cream or get zinged by her quick wit. She strategically saved her comebacks and paybacks for when it really counted.

Sherma never wanted to live in a big city. She was always a “small-town kinda gal.” She knew practically everyone in Marriott, where she lived as a teenager and a newlywed. She served as a Young Women’s advisor there and still received letters from the girls for many years after she moved to Uintah because of how important she was in their lives.

While raising her family in Uintah, Sherma decided to go back to work. She enjoyed working as the Uintah City Clerk for more than two decades. But she still found time to bottle peaches from their orchard, hang laundry out to dry on the clothesline, bake a chocolate applesauce cake from scratch or whatever the day called for.

Sherma always put others before herself and had the ability to make everyone around her feel special. Anyone who ever received a greeting card from Sherma knew that she put a lot of thought and effort into choosing it, and even more thought into writing a personal message inside of it. And what kid didn’t feel like royalty when she served them Jell-O parfait in a fancy goblet?

Extravagant as she was with her love, Sherma was thrifty with money. Few things made her more proud than her bargain finds. Oh, how she loved couponing! And, oh, how her kids hated it when they had to go through a checkout line with coupons of their own or had to walk up and down every aisle of discount marts! Sherma knew the importance of making the best of what a person had from her own childhood and passed that on.

Some of her fondest memories as a child were roller skating with her sister, Shirley. On their last visit together they reminisced about using dish towels as sails to propel themselves. When they really wanted to go fast on their skates, they would wait for the milkman to come by, grab the back of his wagon and roll effortlessly down the road. Sherma also enjoyed spending time with her older brother, Grant, and her younger sister, Dixie.

Sherma will be missed fiercely by her surviving family members and friends, but never forgotten. We will think of her sweet tooth whenever we eat a cookie or a peanut cluster. We will smile a little wider whenever we score a bargain of our own. Honor her memory by loving unconditionally … with the exception of magpies, the dumb birds which we will always share a hatred for.

The family would like to thank everyone from Intermountain Homecare and Hospice who took care of Sherma over the years, especially Diana Higgs and Julie Lee. They went above and beyond their role of caregivers, becoming good friends of Sherma and her family.