Ladies and gentlemen, Sherry has left the building.
Sherry Snell passed away quietly on July 15, 2021, and it was possibly the only quiet thing she ever did in all of her 71 years. She was many things to many people and will be mourned forever by friends and family far and wide. Sherry was the life of every party, with a personality that could fill stadiums, and she’s left a huge hole in our hearts. When asked whether her death was unexpected, we can’t say really say ‘no’ because she’d been ill for months, but on the other hand, most of us fully expected she would live forever.
Sherry was born on September 1, 1949, and the world was never quite the same afterward. She was the 10th of 13 children born to George and Gracie Matthews and spent her formative years in Peason, Louisiana. She married Rodney Manasco in 1965 and gave him four children that were the proudest accomplishments of them both, and they worked especially hard to provide a safe and loving home to grow up in for Melinda Kaye Louvier, the techy one, who taught her how to use Facebook (y’all are welcome!); Melissa Anne Manasco, the spunky one, who spent every moment of Mama’s last three months fighting to save her; Rodney Alan Manasco, the only son and self-proclaimed favorite child; and Melanie Diane Green, the sweetest one, who made Mama so proud every single day of her life. She loved all of us more than she loved bingo, and if you knew her at all, you know that speaks volumes. In turn, we gave them 9 precious grandchildren: Caleb Alan Speight, Whitley Jonette Louvier, Kaitlin Miranda Louvier, Chandler Shae Louvier, Molly Elizabeth LeCuyer, Brady Alan Manasco, Lauran McKenna Green, Jacob Dillon Louvier, and Jackson Alexander Green. She was especially proud of her three great-grandbabies, Skylar Jayne Wolfe, Harper Reign LeCuyer, and Hendrix Haze Manasco, frequently sharing pics of them on her social media accounts. She always stated that she wouldn’t trade any of us for a gold monkey.
People often say that their children are their life, but few live it as completely as our Mama/Nana. As the Official World’s Biggest Elvis Fan, she made sure she took each one of her kids to see him at least once; this was no problem for her, since she saw him perform 13 times. His death plunged our entire household into fullblown mourning so bad that our Daddy was completely exasperated and Alan started sleeping at the neighbors’ house to get away from all the crying. She never got over it entirely. Having loved ones scattered across the U.S. like dandelion seeds turned her into a professional worrier extraordinaire, and she often alerted us to bad weather in our area way before local meteorologists could, and sometimes to weather hundreds of miles away, just to be safe. She cautioned us against many things in our lives, from saying no to drugs (“No thanks, I get high on life!”), to watching out for weirdos in airports, to driving extra-carefully on wet roads, but I think our all-time favorite was always “Watch for deer!” It hurts our hearts to know that we will never wake up at her house in the middle of the night to her coming in at least two or three times to check on us, even as adults, to see if we needed anything. Each and every time we drove away from her house, she stood on the porch and yelled, “I love y’all. Please be careful!” We’re definitely going to miss that.
Sherry married Richard Snell in 1994 in Branson, Missouri and he has forever ingratiated himself to all of us with his love of our sweet Mama. If Sherry spoke it, Richard made it happen, providing everything she could wish for, from a Y2K room big enough to store enough food for us all in the event of a catastrophe, to building her little Snell house with a front porch and a swing, to digging a storm shelter in the ground in case of a tornado, to financing a trip to the Holy Land where she rode a camel--all just to make her happy. Her last Facebook post was to wish him a happy 27th anniversary. Mama made Missy and Richard both promise that they’d take good care of each other after she was gone, yet another indication of her worrying nature. We all promised her as she slipped away that we’d look out for each other, so she could finally stop worrying about us.
Mama loved the color red, dancing to good music in many genres, dressing flashy, Wheel of Fortune, fried potatoes and onions, traveling, wondering where airplanes were going and wishing she was on them, the Thorn Birds, looking at the moon, the sound of church bells, people who made her laugh, and making people laugh herself. She had a lifelong hatred of birds of all kinds, especially seagulls, but in her later years took to watching hummingbirds that visited the feeders on her porch. She claimed to hate all animals, but we caught her a few times surreptitiously petting her grand-dogs and a few others she wasn’t able to run off with a loud “GIT”.
Despite her love of attending viewings herself purely for the enjoyment of judging some people’s choice of outfit, she and Richard decided 15 years ago what they wanted for themselves. Having only a graveside service with a closed casket deprived attendees of seeing her one last time, so you’ll have to take our word for it—she went to her eternal rest looking just as beautiful as she ever was, and in the flashiest red casket any of us ever saw. She got her wish to be laid to rest right next to Mamaw Gracie in Mt Carmel Cemetery in Florien, Louisiana, and that’s exactly as it should be. She is surrounded there by our people that have gone on before, and if their joyous Heavenly reunion was anywhere near as noisy as our loud Matthews take-over family reunions at Kisatchie or our deafening Christmas parties at Aunt Jean’s, the other inhabitants in surrounding mansions have already filed noise complaints and requested upgrades to their insulation as soundproofing.
Mama died safe in the knowledge that we loved her in return, that Elvis Presley is still the king, and that Gunsmoke is the greatest show to ever play on TV, especially the ‘Snow Train’ episodes in season 16.
Her absence will forever ache in the hearts of all who loved her, a fitting tribute to the amount of love she gave to us, and the Sherry-sized hole we now have in our lives. If you didn’t know her, you really missed out. Like, seriously. Look for her in the whisper of autumn leaves, the sound of rain falling on a tin roof, every single Elvis song you ever hear, and when you travel and see beautiful new places you’ve never been before. She will be right there with you. We know, because she told us so.
Bye, Nana. We love you!