Sharon Lee Merfeld, 88
Sharon Lee Merfeld, age 88 of Nashua, died Thursday, April 18, 2024, at Nora Springs Care Center surrounded by family.
Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 2, 2024 at the Little Brown Church, Nashua with the Rev. Drew McHolm presiding.
Burial will take place at Oak Hill Cemetery in Nashua following the service.
Friends may greet the family from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory/Olson Chapel in Nashua.
Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory/Olson Chapel in Nashua have been entrusted with arrangements.
On April 18, 2024, after 88 years of love, sacrifice and service to her family, church, and community, Sharon Merfeld exchanged the struggles of earthly life for the beautiful promise of eternal salvation. At long last, she is reunited with her husband Mick who earnestly awaited the arrival of his golf partner, remote finder and pie-baking wife of 62 years, as well as her two sons, Greg and Tim, who fought to be the first to hug their mom once again.
Sharon Chandler, the daughter of Richard and Marvlyn (Castor) Chandler, entered the world in historic fashion on Jan 22, 1936, at home in Nashua on the coldest day in 117 years of previously recorded Iowa history.
Sharon was an only child, but her upbringing was anything but lonely as she played, fished, and fought with her cousins at her grandparents’ farms in rural Nashua and Minnesota. Sharon graduated from Nashua High School in 1954 where she was a thespian, cheerleader, drum major, and National Honor Society member. Her mother attributed the latter designation to the fact she kept young Sharon from visiting her dad’s main street barber shop where the conversations may have tainted her proper character.
Sharon planned to attend watchmaking school, but after her dad’s sudden death, instead took a job in Nashua.
In 1955, Sharon met Mick Merfeld on a blind date and, despite her mother’s warnings, married him on November 16, 1956, and moved to Greene. Sharon worked for Salsbury Laboratories in Charles City until 1960 when son Greg was born. In 1962, after son Tim’s birth, they moved to Nashua where Mick ran the Nashua DX and Sharon ran the home.
Sharon was a ready community volunteer who exuded competence and confidence, which she instilled in her children as well. She was president of Junior Federated, P.E.O. Chapter EN, and chaired too many committees to count at the Nashua Town and Country Club. In fact, Sharon and Mick were instrumental in establishing the local golf club in 1968, a move that provided Mick’s lifetime hobby and Sharon with Wednesday night solitude for the next 50 years of married life.
After Suzy’s birth in 1969, Sharon taught herself to paint for stress relief, a hobby that produced over 400 portraits and paintings that are now treasured keepsakes.
Among Sharon’s many talents were hitting a putt to the exact spot Mick directed her to aim, refinishing woodwork and reupholstering furniture to save money they didn’t have and conducting research, before the internet, to write the history of Nashua and trace her family lineage back to the Mayflower.
Music and her faith were strong threads throughout Sharon’s life and both sustained her through many losses and hardships.
Sharon was preceded in death by her parents, Richard and Marvlyn Chandler Stuelke; step-father, Theron Stuelke; husband, Mick Merfeld; and sons, Greg Merfeld and Tim Merfeld.
She is survived by her daughter, Suzy (Keith) Turner of Rockford; daughter-in-law Carrie Merfeld of Manteco, California; daughter-in-law, Sheri Merfeld–Takeguma of Agoura Hills, California; four grandchildren; and many friends.
To honor Sharon’s love of reading and history, the family requests memorial contributions be made in her name to the Nashua Public Library or the Nashua-Plainfield National History Day Program.
