Cheryl Kathryn (Stanford) Drost

Cheryl Kathryn Stanford was born in Akron, Ohio, on January 3, 1951 to her Alabama-born father James "Jimmy/J. W." Wesley Stanford, Jr., and her Kentucky-born mother Thelma Jean Shelby Stanford, Cheryl Kathryn Stanford Drost fell into God's loving arms on January 3, 2024.

Cheryl was the second born daughter, seventeen months younger than her older sister Carolyn Jean, who had been born in May 1949. Third sister Cynthia Ann joined the older sisters in December 1955 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and their brother Shawn Leland was born in January 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona. Cheryl could be called "an Arizonan," since she came with Jimmy and Thelma to Phoenix when she was four years old. Jimmy and Thelma loaded their three daughters into a 1955 Ford unequipped with air conditioning and trekked the four-day trip across the US from Ohio to Phoenix in early 1955.

Cheryl was a quick and determined learner since a young age. For example, when her older sister Carolyn learned to ride a two-wheeler at age six, Cheryl quickly learned at age four. When Carolyn taught herself to swim the summer after first grade, four-year-old Cheryl did, too. As a teenager, Cheryl became determined to learn how to twirl a baton after she saw a majorette twirling with the band at an ASU football. At Washington High in Phoenix, pretty Cheryl became the main attraction at halftime as the lights were turned off and she tossed two fire-lit batons in the air and caught them without a glitch, causing a collective "Ooh!". High school years complete, Cheryl got a clerical job. Barry Drost, a six-foot-two blonde ninth grader, had had his eye on barely five-feet tall Cheryl from the time they had first met at the First Evangelical Free Church of Phoenix youth group when Cheryl was thirteen. They married in 1971 at their church when Barry was one day shy of the age of twenty-one. He had to get special permission to marry. Cheryl was barely twenty. They spent a couple years in a tiny trailer near the ASU campus until Barry graduated before moving to Page first and then St. Johns before coming back to the Valley to pursue adoption.

Cheryl loved being outdoors and planting beautiful flowers year-round. She was adding winter blooms just a few weeks ago. Her family calls Barry's and Cheryl's backyard her "happy place."

Her love of God underpinned her life. She was never judgmental and never drew attention to herself. She was not a person comfortable in front of large groups of people, but her sweet voice and peaceful presence have impacted several lives. She often worked behind the scenes, volunteering to do anything to help out. In these past ten years Cheryl has had health challenge after health challenge due to metastasizing cancer, but they have not stopped her. Even when she was not feeling well, she would make tasty dinners for her family and for others. She had the gift of hospitality and would frequently invite her many relatives to Barry's and her house for holidays and special events

Cheryl was very humble and downplayed her accomplishments. Occasionally she would protest, "I've not done anything important in my life." A resounding "Whoa!" Her three devoted daughters and grandchildren are not related to her by blood yet model themselves after "Oma's" loving and generous spirit in so many ways. Kristi, Kari, and Katie have lovingly cared for her these past few weeks.

She loved her surviving family fiercely and dearly: Her three daughters Kristi Michelle and her husband Timothy DiSilvestro, their son Austin Huffaker (15) and daughter Annabelle DiSilvestro (7); Kari Elizabeth and husband Vincent Garcia, their two daughters Bella (17) and Lily (15) and Vincent "Vinnie" (2), and Kathryn (Katie) Amanda, her husband Chad Buhr, and their daughters Addie (4). Ainsley (2) and soon-to-arrive Amelia

Cheryl Kathryn Stanford Drost passed peacefully away into the presence of the Savior she loved on her seventy-third birthday, January 3, 2024. Borrowing a comment from a family member, we gratefully say, "Cheryl had two birthdays on January 3."