Sheri Marie Winstead Adams

Sheri Marie Winstead Adams of Lancaster, Texas was born August 17, 1932, in the city of Coleman, Coleman County, Texas, to William Henry Winstead (8/9/06-5/16/67) and Iola Lolita Hatcher Winstead (6/13/08-3/4/92). She passed from this life on February 3, 2026, at the age of 93. Sheri graduated from Coleman High School in 1949 with honors in “C” and F H A. She was also in the Bluecat Marching Band and played the clarinet. She enrolled in a business school in Dallas and excelled in typing shorthand and all the rest. Her business training provided a strong foundation that served her for the rest of her life. While working in Dallas after her training, she met her future husband, W. O. Adams, and they married on July 26, 1957. The marriage lasted until W. O. died in 2017. After marrying W.O., who had been working at L T V and taking night engineering classes, he decided he wanted to continue his studies at Texas Tech. So, he loaded Sheri up and moved to Lubbock. They couldn’t find a place to live, so W.O. bought an 8-by-10 travel trailer for them and paid 24 dollars a month to park it. Sheri, with her excellent secretary skills, went to work as the President of Texas Tech’s (Dr. Jones) Personal Secretary. In 1958, David was born, and with no room for a baby bed, Sheri took everything out of a drawer in the trailer’s built-in chest of drawers, which became David’s bed. W.O. missed a final exam in one of his electrical engineering courses due to the birth, but when he went to see the professor that afternoon, the professor allowed him to retake it. W.O. was the first in our family to graduate from college, so all his family came to Lubbock to support him. Sheri always wanted to be a proper host, but there was no way she could put up that many people. The women slept in the cars and the men on the ground, which made Sheri feel quite bad. The next morning, one of W.O.’s brothers knocked on the door and asked Sheri if she had a shovel. She asked him why in the world he needed a shovel, and he told her he wanted to make his bed! She had married into a family full of jokesters. W.O. got a job in a Missile Silos in North Glen, Colorado, and they lived a couple of years there before he got tired of working inside and moved the family back to Dallas. Sheri took off a couple of years in Colorado to raise David, but when she got back to Dallas, she took a Job at Jake L Hamon Oil Company as his secretary. At some point, she left Jake L Hamon and went to work for law firms in data processing. She also learned and became proficient with the DOS commands, and with her impressive organizational skills, she soon became a big part of several great teams of lawyers who depended on her to keep up with the changes to documents. They always trusted that her final edits would be what the attorney would pull up when other additions were made. The last firm she worked for was McCool Smith, which was and still is one of the premier patent enforcement firms in the world. She would go to work at 3 in the afternoon and come in at 3 or later in the morning. She loved her job and the people she worked with, and they were so kind as to allow her to work until she was 85 years old. Since she retired, she has lived an active life being a mom, grandma, great-grannie, fisherperson, nail and hair salon regular, and a big supporter of all the local restaurants that she frequented with her friends. She was preceded in death by her parents; her brother, Charles; her daughter-in-law, Kelly; and her husband, W. O. Adams. Sheri is survived by her son, David and daughter, Dee Ann; her grandchildren, Seth and his wife Jennifer Adams; and Amber and her husband Brian Buehler; four great-grandchildren, Breelyn and Bristol Buehler, Crew and Carley Adams, and Crew and Carley’s brothers, Connor, Cooper, and Carter. The family will receive friends from 10:00am to 11:00am on Friday, February 13, 2026 at Byrum Funeral Home in Lancaster, Texas with a celebration of Sheri’s life beginning at 11:00am. Interment will follow at Bullock Cemetery in Ranger, Texas.

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Sheri Marie Winstead Adams

August 17, 1932 - February 3, 2026