Sharyn Elizabeth Chapman

Sharyn Elizabeth Chapman passed away peacefully on March 3, 2022. She was born in North Adams, MA., the loving daughter and only child of Louis and Eleanor Vigna. Sherry was preceded in death by her father, in 1983, and her mother, in 2021. She married Douglas K. Chapman in 1998 and they enjoyed twenty-five very happy years in Sarasota, Florida.

She attended Drury High School in North Adams and graduated from North Adams State College. After college she became an elementary level teacher. During this time, she got her real estate broker’s license. She was instrumental in establishing a company in the land development business operating throughout the north east.

She had one son, Jason Grande of Sarasota, Florida who is married to Annika. Sherry thought of Annika as her daughter. The Grande’s have two sons, A.J. and Walker, who are wonderful grandchildren. There has always been a mutual love relationship between Sherry, the doting grandmother and her attentive grandsons. Jason and Sherry were always together emotionally and shared identical values.

Through marriage to Douglas, she has other children - Laura Kohler, New Albany, Ohio, Dawna and Bob Bailey, Indio, California, Kevin Chapman and Teresa White, Dallas, Texas. She has eleven grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. She adored all of them.

She had many friends. She was a top-notch tennis player and could hit the golf ball a mile! She had great artistic talent. She was an accredited artist who worked in oils. She wrote and published two books available on Amazon. All of the funds received from her paintings and books, have been given to charity. She supported many causes but her most important was the Child Protection Center.

In 2019 The Chapmans set up an Endowment known as the Sharyn Chapman Endowment for the Child Protection Center of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. This endowment will provide funds for the CPC ad infinitum.

Sherry was loyal and loving to her family and friends, who, in turn, loved her deeply. She was an exceptionally wise woman who, when asked, gave thoughtful advice and guidance. Her many unrecognized acts of kindness, charity and compassion improved the lives of those she knew as well as many others she never met. Sherry was a woman of strength and grace. A beautiful woman inside and out, she will be remembered for her generous spirit and loving heart.

If you would like to honor her memory, please mention the Sharyn Chapman Endowment, CPC, 720 S. Orange Ave., Sarasota, FL 34236. Private arrangements for the family will be observed.