Shirley Ruth Sweet

CASA GRANDE - Shirley Ruth Sweet, 91, of Casa Grande died peacefully on July 27, 2016, at The Garnet of Casa Grande.

Mrs. Sweet was born on July 11, 1925, in Malcolm, Nebraska, to Arthur and Dorothy Sturdevant. Nicknamed Sturdy, she grew up in Nebraska during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when life was truly hard. Upon graduation from high school in 1943 as salutatorian, she ignored a full scholarship to a teachers college and moved to Wichita, Kansas, for a job in aircraft manufacturing during World War II. There she met and married Lloyd Taylor. She stayed in Wichita until the 1960s, when her husband’s federal job took them to Iowa, then back to Nebraska, where he later died.

In 1977 she married Glenn Donaldson, a local banker, and his job later took them to South Dakota, where he died in 1982. She returned to her beloved Nebraska, where she met and married her last husband, John Sweet, a government biologist. He died years later and she continued living in Lincoln until she moved to Arizona in 2009. She had a full life. A librarian in Iowa, she later applied those skills to organizing and filing volumes of family data and photos for a genealogical history. She was an avid reader and instilled that love in all her children.

She collected fine porcelain and antique china and was a state fair blue ribbon winner with embroidered quilts. She had a deep commitment to upholding the responsibility of being her family’s matriarch.

Survivors include four daughters and sons, Sheila Frobuccino of Casa Grande, Larry R. Taylor of Wichita, Christopher L. Taylor and Phoebe Neumann of Lincoln; six stepsons and -daughters, Curt Donaldson of Nebraska, Elaine Rhoades of Pennsylvania, Martha Wibbels of Nebraska, Robert Sweet of Kansas, Terry Gortmaker and Thomas Sweet of Nebraska; a sister, Joyce Paph of Kansas; a brother, Lawrence Sturdevant of California; 19 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life will be held Oct. 1 in Lincoln.

Memorial donations may be made to a local PBS TV station.

J. Warren Funeral Services, Cole & Maud The Gardens Chapel is in charge of arrangements.