Sherry at age 41, standing near a termite mound in Namibia, Africa. February, 1986.

JENSEN, CHERYL LYNDS - Age 63, born Jan 4, 1945, to Baxter Caterson, Jr and Charlotte Williams (Caterson), in Long Beach, CA. She passed away on Jan 5, 2008, after a long battle with cancer, at her home in College Grove, TN. She is survived by her brothers, Baxter Williams Caterson and Neal Rodman Caterson, and her husband, Kirk Thomas Jensen.

Cheryl (Sherry) was a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Civil Engineering. She worked as a Civil Engineer for the cities of Palo Alto, CA, and Mountain View, CA, and later Stanford University. She left Stanford and founded CDAccess.com in 1993 and operated it with her husband Kirk until her death. Sherry published the book "The Vanderfords: Early Settlers of America" and also created the VanderfordFamily.com web site. Other hobbies included cooking, sewing, reading, and travel.

Graveside and memorial services in Gridley, CA, will be followed by a memorial service in College Grove, TN.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

Sherry grew up in Southern California, in Long Beach and Garden Grove, and graduated from Bolsa Grande High School. She entered Stanford University in 1963 and married fellow student Grant Baze in 1964. Kirk attended the wedding and met Sherry for the first time at that time. Later, Sherry and Grant were divorced. Kirk returned to Stanford in 1970 after serving four years in the Air Force. He started dating Sherry in 1971 and they were married in November of the same year.

Sherry was working as Joseph Magnin's executive secretary at the time, a job she really liked. Kirk needed to stay close to Stanford so they moved into an apartment in Mountain View, CA, and Sherry commuted by train to San Francisco. Eventually she decided the train commute was too much so she took a job at a local bank, moving very quickly from teller to loan officer. In 1974 Kirk and Sherry moved to Los Altos Hills, CA, living there for 26 years, later moving to Tennessee in 2000.

As soon as Kirk finished his degree Sherry was back at Stanford finishing her degree in Civil Engineering, working in that field until she started CDAccess.com in 1993. Sherry loved to travel. If a plane or ship was leaving to go anywhere she wanted to be on it. She visited 25 US States, all 13 Canadian Provinces, Mexico, most of Europe, southern Africa, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Japan. She cruised the Caribbean and Panama on the Queen Mary II and later cruised the Alaska Inside Passage in October of 2005 on Norwegian Cruise Lines using her wheelchair. Despite the wheelchair, she managed all the major shore excursions, including the train to Whitehorse, a float plane ride to visit a glacier bay camp, and a small boat tour of the harbor at Prince Rupert. A slide show of that trip is available at the bottom of this page. Her favorite trip, however, was the 6 week Northwest Passage cruise in 1984 from St. Johns, Newfoundland, via Greenland, across Northern Canada and Alaska, down the Bering Strait, along the Aleutian Chain, finally ending up in Japan. She would spend hours on deck, inside the observation deck, or inside the wheelhouse watching the birds and other arctic wildlife, the ocean and ice flows, and the unspoiled arctic terrain.

Genealogy was another passion. Her research was extensive and exact, never depending on secondary sources if she could find a primary source. She would spend days at a time in the National Archives, in various public libraries and family history centers, and in county courthouses. She published a book about the Vanderford family and created a web site with the full contents of that book plus much, much, more.

Cooking was another passion. She would spend hours watching The Food Channel on TV, subscribed to at least 6 cooking magazines, and created an extensive personal recipe collection. When she was no longer able to cook physically she would dictate the recipes to Kirk and cook by remote control.

Sherry also liked to knit and sew. She could knit very nice sweaters, both for herself and others, and for many years sewed her own dresses and blouses and also shirts for Kirk. She even made her own winter coat. She liked to read, especially mysteries. She was well-versed on computers and would solve crossword puzzles, play Mega Solitaire and Minesweeper and put together picture puzzles on the computer. Her favorite shows on TV (other than Food Channel shows) were on PBS, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and the History Channel. She also watched Football, knowing most of the players and all of the rules, and several popular shows, including, of course, The Amazing Race.

Sherry was placed under hospice care with WillowBrook Hospice on July 14, 2005. At the time, making it to Christmas 2005 was not thought to be likely but she managed to defy those dire predictions and was able to celebrate Christmas 2007 and also her birthday on Jan 4th, 2008. She was able to function on her own until the very last days, moving around the house at all hours on her bright red Phantom electric scooter.

She was as determined as they come, independent, very smart with a terrific memory, caring, committed, and a true life partner. She will be missed terribly.

Gone from our sight,
but never our memories -
Gone from our touch,
but never our hearts.

* To download a slide show of the graveside service and memorial service in Gridley, click here: service_for_sherry.exe

** To download a slide show of the Alaska Cruise in 2005: alaska_cruise.exe