Roll Call Tribute

Published in Houston Chronicle on July 7, 2016

Cheryl Siebs(1957 - 2016)
Cheryl Shepherd Siebs
1957-2016
Cheryl Siebs, 58, after fighting breast cancer since 2008, finally succumbed to the grip the disease had on her body and passed away at her home in Austin, TX on Thursday morning, June 30th.
Cheryl was born in San Diego, CA on October 10, 1957 to Robert, Jr. (Bob) and Elizabeth (Libby) Shepherd. As a young girl her family moved to Seabrook, TX where Cheryl spent her youth and graduated with honors from Clear Lake HS in 1975. Cheryl was an active member of her high school class where she was Senior Class Treasurer, a member of The Falcon Flairs Drill Team, participated on the track team and sang in the Symphonic Choir. After graduation Cheryl attended Texas A&M University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1979. After two years of working as an Account Executive for Burroughs Corporation, Cheryl decided to return to school full time to earn an MBA. She enrolled at the University of Texas, Austin and earned her Master of Business Administration from the prestigious UT McCombs School of Business in 1983. During her time at the University of Texas, Cheryl met her future husband Larry Siebs.
Cheryl started her second professional career in Dallas, TX, first as a Financial Analysis for Frito Lay and then as a Manager of Financial Accounting for MBank and then Bank One. In August of 1984 Cheryl and Larry were wed at the Seabrook United Methodist Church in Cheryl's hometown of Seabrook, TX. Eight years after they were married, Cheryl and Larry were living in Clear Lake, TX, when Cheryl gave birth to their only child, Kevin. Promotions with GE Healthcare moved Cheryl, Larry and Kevin from Texas to Connecticut and finally to Arizona. Cheryl lived in Arizona for 15 years were she became an active member of the Carefree and Cave Creek communities participating in numerous church, school and healthcare awareness programs. One of her lifelong passions was music, and in 2005 she helped establish the Upscale Singers where she served as their President and Alto/Soprano mainstay for 10 years.
In 2008 Cheryl was diagnosed with breast cancer and through her experiences she became actively engaged in community outreach programs aimed at breast cancer awareness and survivorship. In 2014 she received honorary distinction from the Arizona chapter of the Coalition of Blacks Against Breast Cancer (CBBC). Unfortunately, Cheryl also found out in the spring of 2014 that her cancer had returned as metastatic breast cancer. A year later Cheryl and Larry moved from their home in Carefree, AZ to their new home in Austin, TX allowing Cheryl to seek clinical trial treatment from Texas' acclaimed oncology centers and to maintain close proximately to Cheryl's mother and other family members. The move also gave Cheryl a chance to attend Texas A&M home football games with her mother and brother, and relive the fighting Aggie spirit that always stayed with her.
Cheryl is survived by her husband of 32 years Larry, son Kevin, mother Elizabeth Shepherd, brother Robert Shepherd III, cousins Will Shepherd, Janet Rhodes, Peggy Yonge, Becky Hopkins and Tricia Barksdale, mother and father in-law Rose Marie and Carl Siebs, brother and sister in-laws Steve Siebs, Mary Cass and Katie Ave, and preceded in death by her father Robert Shepherd, Jr.
Cheryl's courageous spirit and the inspiration she provided others through her selfless and forever caring acts of kindness will be celebrated at her memorial service on Thursday, July 7th at the Seabrook United Methodist Church in Seabrook, TX at 1:00pm.