Sylvia Wheeler

Funeral services for Sylvia Wheeler, 86, will be held at 2:00 pm Thursday, December 14th at Worden Chapel with Pastor Gary Williams of Westside Baptist Churh, Gillette, WY officiating. Burial will follow in the Greenwood Cemetery.

Mrs. Wheeler died Saturday, December 9th at Weston Manor Nursing Home In Newcastle.

Sylvia Wheeler was born on February 6, 1920 in Linn Creek, Missouri to Ellis Quinton and Hattie Hannah Shumate Wooten. When Sylvia was born she weighed only 5 pounds and had to be carried around on a pillow and the doctors said they would be surprised if she lived. Sylvia was the sixth child born out of eight. Sylvia?s brothers and sisters included: Claude, Dorothy, Bertha, Nellie who died of measles and whooping cough and was buried on her first birthday, Herbert, Harold and Edgar.

Sylvia lost her mother at the young age of 7. Later that year she contracted polio. Because of the devoted help of her grandmother and country doctors who came out every day to treat her, Sylvia regained the use of her legs.

Sylvia and her family moved to Preston, Missouri when she was 8 years old. Sylvia enjoyed these years at the farm. She would delight everyone with her stories of her memories of her childhood in Missouri. She had a pet squirrel who she called Frisky, and many favorite pets, especially her very much loved Chihuahuas.

Sylvia married Howard Wheeler on August 12, 1946 at Olathe, Kansas. She followed him to Wyoming, where they made their homes in Newcastle and Osage. They had 5 children; Stanley, Carol, Donna, Shirley and Kay.

Sylvia loved to nurse sick and injured animals. She had a caring, loving touch with them and she would have made a great vet. . She made the best fried chicken and the most mouth watering pies in the world. She had a green thumb and could grow any plant. Her gardens were huge. One year she canned 150 quarts of green beans off of one picking. She loved her children and grandchildren and was loved dearly by them. Her mother died when she was seven years old and she vowed that she would be the best mother she could be and she truly was.

Sylvia was preceded in death by her mother and father, her grandmother who raised her Sarah Caroline, her brothers and sisters, her husband, one step daughter and one son in law.

Sylvia is survived by her children, Stanley of Newcastle, Carol Fawcett of Casper, Shirley and Dennis DeMerritt of Newcastle, Donna Dubsky of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kay and Dan Sturdevant of Gillette, 17 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren, and 3 step grandchildren.