Cheryl Jean (Strickland) Scarf, 79, of Alexandria, Minnesota (formerly of Atlantic, Iowa) passed away Christmas afternoon Friday 2020 December 25. She had lived around Atlantic her entire life until the past two years when she moved to Alexandria to be closer to her daughter, Kim.
A graveside memorial service will be held Saturday April 24th at 1:00p.m. at the Atlantic Cemetery, followed by a luncheon at 2:00p.m. at the First Church of Christ (1310 SW 7th Street) in Atlantic. All family and friends are invited to attend.
The family asks that instead of flowers, memorial donations be made to the Atlantic Public Library, care of the Cheryl Scarf Memorial Fund, in order to purchase children’s books.
Cheryl Jean Strickland, daughter of Allie Richard Strickland and Wilma Arlene DeBord, was born 1941 April 23, at Atlantic, Iowa. She lived with her grandparents, Arlie and Dorthea (Davis) DeBord for the first few years of her life. She attended elementary school in Exira several years before going to country school south of Atlantic, and graduating Atlantic High School in 1960. Her family farmed around Marne, Exira, Atlantic, and Wiota.
Cheryl married Howard Herbert Scarf 1961 June 10 at Zion Lutheran Church in Atlantic. They soon moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where she worked for the Iowa Conservation Commission. Cheryl & Howard returned to Atlantic where they eventually settled southeast of town to raise their family. Their three children are Kimberly Kay (1962 September), Allen Richard (1966 October), and David Michael (1977 November).
Springtime was Cheryl’s favorite season (perhaps because the snow was surely melting!!!) She loved animals, especially newborn lambs and baby chicks. Puppies and kittens were not far behind. She took very good care of those animals under her attention including sheep, pigs, cattle, chickens, geese, ducks, dogs, cats, and rabbits. Bottle lambs and bucket calves were her favorites. Feed & water for them were never left undone. However, she hated gathering eggs as she had done too much of that growing up! And fighting hens for their eggs was largely contentious as being pecked while retrieving them was like stealing away nature. Mom especially disliked Banty roosters that attacked her unforgivingly when taking care of the chickens, too. As per her discretion, fortunately, they didn’t last long! She enjoyed gardening and planting flowers to see things come to life throughout spring & summer. We always had fresh cut spring flowers in the house including lilies, iris, tulips, peonies, roses, and lilacs. Lots of days were spent weeding and fighting bugs to keep the plants healthy. She did an excellent job of canning & always putting enough food up in the Fall to the last the year. The family always had potatoes, onions, squashes, vegetables, fruits, marmalades, jellies, jams, and crates of applesauce on hand.
Cheryl was an excellent cook. Her dishes were favored at potlucks, church events, and family gatherings. She loved making wedding cakes, cookies & deserts, and especially Christmas candies. Her chocolates were amazing! Angel food cake was one of her specialties, as was fried chicken. She always worked on trying new recipes and making old dishes even better. She used intuition as well as study to make improvements along the way, cataloging feedback with flavors. Her homemade BBQ sauce was unique, wonderful, and a family favorite! Cheryl worked on passing these skills down to her kids and made sure that we all learned how to cook properly. Throughout 4-H projects and daily living she shared & taught us to appreciate things that taste good. We didn’t have many boundaries, even watching Julia Child regularly on Iowa Public Television, and experimenting with some of those recipes.
Reading was Cheryl’s passion. Both of her grandmothers instilled this love for reading in her heart that lasted her entire life. She consumed thousands of books on her weekly trips to the library, was well read, and especially liked science fiction & fantasy genre. This gave Cheryl a broader understanding of the world than most of us see without the internet. Perhaps reading also gave her escapism to resolve some of her childhood struggles. Her favorite stories by far were the folklore of King Arthur & Queen Quenevere. She enjoyed the underdog overcoming hardship to prevail with integrity, honesty, and valor in the pursuit of noble causes; hence, a tragedy that does not always play out in the modern world. Cheryl passed down her grandmothers’ love of reading and made sure that her children were readers of all things. Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss, Walt Disney, and the Berenstain Bears were favorites. Even when finances were tight Cheryl made sure the kids got Scholastic Bookclub books and checkouts from the library. She read to her children often and taught them to read & spell early. It was almost mandatory to compete in spelling bees and be at advanced reading levels. Cheryl volunteered in early years at the school library, and in retirement years as a para with teachers to help elementary children become better readers. She always considered reading and education fundamental values, and passed this down to her own children as well as those she volunteered with. One of the worst outcomes from Cheryl reading so much happened while on a camping trip at Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River with Uncle David & Aunt Kathy. It was unusually hot that day so she stayed on shore, under the trees reading books instead of going out boating. Even being in the shade did not prevent her from getting the worst sunburn of her life from the reflection off the river as she dozed off after a good read!!!
Cheryl enjoyed arts & crafts and had a creative touch. She read books and learned how to make wedding cakes, Christmas candies, and Christmas sugar ornaments (she picked up on the ornaments at an after school workshop while in highschool). She made ceramics, candles, decorative eggs, and many wintery crafts. We loved to dye Easter eggs. Christmas was still Cheryl’s favorite holiday. She had fond memories of Uncle Wayne bringing oranges for Christmas morning. Also of her dad going to Red Oak and getting bags of oranges. Her house was always full of smells & tastes on Christmas!
Cheryl loved gospel music & listening to the Statler Brothers and the Gaithers. She also enjoyed Manheim Steamroller and attending many of their concerts in Des Moines & Omaha. Of course, Christmas music of all kinds was special to her. Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Andy Williams were several of her favorite artists. Cheryl’s love of music was passed on to her children as she encouraged them to participate in choir & singing at school, church, and other extracurricular functions, much as she had done while growing up.
Cheryl’s favorite vacations included trips to the Rocky Mountains, Wyoming, Canada, Washington D.C., the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and the oceans. She had wonderful memories of Yellowstone staying at the Old Faithful Inn listening to evening violin & piano music after seeing plenty of bears & buffalo while on her honeymoon with Howard. She enjoyed numerous camping trips with friends and family, too. Her most favorite trips were going to Hawaii with her mother, Arlene, and son, David. She loved the lush beauty of the islands including flowers, tropical plants, waterfalls, and colorful birds. Perhaps Cheryl’s most adventurous day came when she was driving around Honolulu alone and got lost looking for the hotel. Somehow she ended up at the airport out on the tarmac with the airplanes and had to be escorted off the runways!!!
Many influences contributed to Cheryl’s church upbringing. Her Grandmother Hannah (Hocamp) Strickland grew up Lutheran and joined the 7th Day Adventist church in Exira. Her DeBord grandparents were Methodist. She attended Vacation Bible School at both Wiota First Lutheran and Fletcher Chapel Methodist. Cheryl & her family were baptized 22 March 1959 at the First Christian Church in Atlantic. She joined Zion Lutheran Church when she married Howard. They eventually moved out to Wiota First Lutheran. In later years she attended First Church of Christ in Atlantic.
Cheryl’s Iowa family planted roots long ago. The Stricklands came from England and spent time in New York and Missouri before landing in Bear Grove Township Guthrie County, just east of Exira. The Stricklands spent the tussle of Civil War as abolitionists around this time. Her great great grandfather Thomas Strickland practiced medicine and had quite a doctorship around Bear Grove. The DeBords were also abolitionists and left the Carolinas before Civil War broke out. They endured the war and settled after in Grant County Wisconsin for a time before landing on Wisconsin Ridge, just east of Elk Horn, Iowa. Here they farmed and had land around Marne, finally settling south of Atlantic. Cheryl’s great great grandmother, Martha Elizabeth (Clark) DeBord, is said to have been a grandniece of First Lady, Martha Washington.
Cheryl was preceded in death by her husband, Howard (1988); parents, Allie (1993) & Arlene (2008); grandparents, Vernon Strickland (1917) & Hannah Hocamp (1965); grandparents, Arlie DeBord (1975) & Dorothea Davis (1982); brother-in-law, David Buckingham (2020); niece, Lynda Buckingham Stearns (2020), nephew, David Buckingham (2005); and niece, Melissa Buckingham Zimmerman (2017).
Survivors include:
daughter Kimberly Felch (Paul) of Alexandria, Minnesota
granddaughters Serena Williams and Kiera Felch
granddaughter Kaiya Williams (Dylan) of Atlantic, Iowa
great-grandsons Chevon Parker Schelle and Dayton John Schelle
great-granddaughter Cambry Michelle Williams
son Allen Scarf of Audubon, Iowa
granddaughters Amelia Scarf and Victoria Scarf
grandson Benjamin Scarf
son David Scarf (Jillian) of Hancock, Iowa
grandson Cody Knoell
granddaughter Skylar Glover
sister Carolyn Buckingham of Antioch, Illinois
sister Janet Madsen (Bob) of Storm Lake, Iowa
