Cheryl June Sinness

Cheryl June Sinness, 64, of Hamilton passed away Friday, February 6, at the Marcus Daly Hospice Center in Hamilton, Montana after a long and arduous bout with cancer. With her were her husband Ken, son Christopher, and daughter Kirsten.

Cheryl was born on D-Day, June 6, 1944 to Robert and Cecelia June Sliker. Her father was in the US Army in Italy and this began a long relationship with the military. When her father decided to make the army a career, Cheryl had experiences throughout the United States and Europe with her family. She spent two years as a child in West Berlin and later graduated high school from the American High School in Verdun, France. After graduation from the University of Washington School of Nursing she became an officer in the US Navy and served in hospitals in Pensacola, Florida and in Guam, Marianas Islands. While on Guam she cared for wounded US Marines that had been evacuated from Viet Nam and later worked in the maternity ward in the same hospital. She often said that these experiences were some of the most challenging and rewarding of her life.

After leaving active duty, she met and married Ken Sinness, a naval officer stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco in 1972. Thus began a continuation of military service that brought her to Rhode Island, Yokosuka in Japan, Monterey in California, Back to Guam, and finally to Ken's retirement in Virginia. During all of this she found time to give birth to a son, Christopher, born in Japan, and a daughter, Kirsten, born on Guam.

After military retirement, she and her family resided in Bothell and North Bend, Washington for another twenty years before retiring in Hamilton in 1999. While in Washington she worked in real estate for a time and later found that she particularly loved working with a major cruise line in Seattle for customer service. As such she had the opportunity for more travel and extensively explored Alaska as well as cruises on the west coast. Other cruises included travel to Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, the Grand Caymans, and other locations throughout the Central America region. The highlight was a cruise between Turkey and Greece, which allowed visits to Bucharest, Romania, as well as Istanbul and Athens. While in Turkey she had the opportunity to stand in the amphitheater where Saint Paul addressed the Ephesians, a very moving experience.

After retirement to the Bitterroot Valley, Cheryl became very active in the Marcus Daly Auxiliary and volunteered as a pink lady for a number of years. This was an activity of which she was very proud and she enjoyed it immensely. She also played Mahjongg every week with very dear friends from this area.

Cheryl considered herself to be fortunate beyond understanding with the friends that she had in the area as well as from her earlier life. Her passing brought messages of condolences from as long ago as her high school days nearly 50 years ago and 6,000 miles away and from the many friends from years and locations in between. She was loved by everyone and will be missed every day.

She is survived by her husband of 36 years, Ken, and her son Christopher, daughter-in-law Jessica, and granddaughter Natasha, all of Helena, Montana, and her daughter, Kirsten of Seattle. She also is survived by a beloved step-mother Betty of Ocean Shores, Washington, and several step-brothers and sisters.