Sheryl Gerk

Sheryl Jean Gerk, age 74 of New Hampton, Iowa died Thursday, December 1, 2022 at the 11th Street Chautauqua Guest Home in Charles City. Funeral services will be held 3:00 p.m. Tuesday December 6, 2022 at the Hugeback Johnson Funeral Home and Crematory in New Hampton with Rev. James Goerend officiating. Interment will be in the Oakwood Cemetery, in Plymouth, IA. Friends may gather beginning at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Sheryl Jean Gerk was born in Mason City, Iowa on September 15, 1948. She grew up in the Mason City area and graduated from Mason City High School in 1968. She completed NIACC as the salutatorian in 1970 and also graduated summa cum laude from Mankato State University in 1976. She attended one year of graduate studies in Library Science at UNI in 1980-1981. Later in life she became very interested in legal cases and took a number of paralegal and law classes. She became a friend of the Zimmerman's of Orchard. Their son Matthew was prosecuted by Mitchell County for driving a tractor with steel wheels on its roads. She attended the magistrate’s court hearing and the appeal argument in the Iowa Supreme Court. She also discussed the case with Matthew’s attorney Collin Murphy. The Court found the ordinance unconstitutional. She also closely followed a police shooting case in Cedar Rapids and a Floyd County murder case providing feedback on the legal arguments. Sheryl was a very interested in children though she did not have any of her own. She was very generous and had an intuitive understanding of their likes. She loved to tell about her first semester at Mankato State when she assisted with a birth in her bathroom and helped plan an impromptu wedding. She will be remembered as having a fantastic memory and an inquiring mind. She was also a devoted Catholic. She is survived by her friends, Judy and Kit O’Donohoe of New Hampton and their family. She is also survived by dedicated care providers who were both friends and family in the last months of her life, Cherry Ann Richter, Kalee Gaudineer, Laura Henkle and Shauntal Weathersoon of New Hampton. Keelee Conrad and Kim Pleggenkuhle of Waucoma, Amy Deterding of Sumner, Jen Snitker of Nashua and Cassie Bean of Charles City. She is survived on the Gerk side by an Aunt Marvyl Gerk of Blue Earth, Minnesota and cousins Elizabeth Wilmes, Ralph Gerk and Christine Skidmore. She is survived by Sprung cousins Kevin Sprung, Osage, Stanley Sprung, Plymonth and the Willensens – Susan Knapp of Fort Dodge, Judy of Ames and Jennifer Benda of Gilbert, Robert of Mason City. Sheryl was preceded in death by her parents Arlene R (Sprung) Gerk and Charles J. Gerk formerly of Clear Lake.