On December 2, 2017, God placed his arms around Johnnie Jean Dobie Sheffield, 95, at Timberwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Livingston, Texas, and took her to heaven. Johnnie was a devout Christian woman who gave God all the credit for her blessings.
Johnnie was known throughout Polk County as the “Tamale Lady”. She was born to John and Alice Coffman Dobie on January 8, 1922, in Mathis, Texas. She is predeceased by her parents; brother Dick Dobie and sisters, Cardialma Dobie and Inez Dobie Mueller and her brother-in-law, Hugo Mueller. She is also predeceased by three husbands.
Johnnie lived a very long, exciting and versatile life. After graduation from Mathis High School, she married Willie Volimering and became a farmer’s wife, even selling eggs. On their ranch in New Braunfels she became a very adept deer huntress and then at their Mexico fishing camp, a real fisher lady. We remember great times with them on fishing campouts on Padre Island in the early ‘50’s. in the late ‘50’s they moved to New Braunfels where Johnnie became an Avon Lady and then a Tupperware representative. Finally, she was the San Antonio District Supervisor for four companies with many sales rep working for her.
With her marriage to Charles Sheffield; she became a stepmom to his grown children, which all predeceased her. During the boom in land development of the South Florida swampland, Charles got jobs cleaning land for new developments like Naples and Coral Gables and Johnnie introduced the locals to Tex-Mex Cuisine. She had to teach the local butchers and grocers what to order for her and her mother in Texas shipped corn shucks to her monthly so that she could make her tamales. She said her first customer didn’t’ like them because they were too hard to eat. Then she learned they had eaten the tamales with the corn shucks on them.
In 1975 they moved to Wild Country Lake Estates, where she continued to live for 42 years. After Charles’s death some years later, Johnnie felt God brought W.L. Cox into her life and they got married. They enjoyed cooking together, attending community church singings and collecting angels. Much to everyone’s surprised, God decided to take W.L. to Heaven.
Johnnie continued making her tamales and attending the singings every week. In fact, she was busy delivering the tamales up to the day she fell in September 2014.
After surgery and numerous hospitalizations, it became necessary for Johnnie to move to Timberwood on a permanent basis. It was a struggle giving up her independence, as she had always been a very strong-willed, independent woman. But she finally reconciled that it was for the best, as she began to like the place and the people taking care of her.
Left to cherish her memory are he nieces, Mitzi Maceo and Tanya Jaridly; her grand nieces, Trina Widney and Rhonda Roe, her husband Ken and their children, Matthew and Krissy. She is also survived by a sister-in-law, Joyce Roper, and a cousin, Robert Coffman, as well as many step-grandnieces and nephews.
Our Aunt Johnnie is no longer in pain and is now with God and her loved ones. We will greatly miss our beautiful aunt.
Funeral Services will be held at the Pace Funeral Chapel in Livingston, Texas, on Thursday, December 14, 2017, at 12 noon. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, on December 14, 2017, at the same funeral chapel. Burial Service to follow at the Holly Grove Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family request memorial to be sent to your favorite charitable organization.
To send your online condolences, please go to www.pacefuneral.com
|
