Sidney Sue Beerwinkle

Sidney Sue Beerwinkle was born on December 26, 1941, to Warren and Merle Kerr in Lubbock, Texas. The happiest times of her early years were spent traipsing about the family property with her dog. She graduated from Lubbock High School in 1960. She started her college career at Texas Tech University but finished it in 1967 at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, after her parents bought Menkhaven hunting and fishing lodge in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. After graduation, she taught school in Taos, New Mexico, and enjoyed fly-fishing in the Conejos River on her weekends.

In 1967, through a mutual friend, she met another transplanted Texan, David Beerwinkle, who was working on the Dameron Ranch in Saguache, Colorado. On July 23, 1968, in a double ceremony with her sister, Sidney married David in Alamosa, Colorado. Their first home was in Saguache, Colorado. They lived there until deciding to move back to Texas in 1971. In 1974, their first daughter Amy was born, while they were living in Bushland, Texas. Three years later, second daughter Rachel was born in Amarillo, Texas. In 1979, the family would move from Pecos, Texas, to Temple, Texas, where Sidney began a 15+ year career as medical secretary at Scott & White Hospital.

Upon retiring in 1997, Sidney devoted much of her time to her new-found love of reading — specifically Louis L’amour books, which she would read over and over again for the next 20 years, along with a few other books. She loved history and researching ancestry. Her daughters’ moves around the country and world gave her the opportunity to visit Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Maryland, and South Korea. In her last years, she had an indomitable spirit as she battled vertigo, osteoporosis, kyphosis, and finally congestive heart failure.

She passed away at home in Belton on October 11, at 81 years old, with her husband David, daughter Rachel, and several devoted hospice and assisted living workers by her side. She is survived by her husband David, her sister Linda Landers of El Paso, her daughter Amy Beerwinkle and son-in-law Jeremy Artho of Weatherford, Texas, her daughter Rachel Fitzwater and son-in-law Luke Fitzwater of Morgan’s Point, Texas, and six grandchildren: Gideon, Graham, Adelaide, Zane, Jude, and Cole. We will be celebrating her life at the Moffat Community Center on Sunday, October 29, from 11 a.m.-12 noon.