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JEWEL BRYAN STERLING
– 99 -
LAKELAND - Jewel
Bryan Sterling died Tuesday night while sleeping peacefully at Lakeland
Regional Medical Center. She was a resident of Lakeland since 1933. Born
in Ashburn, Georgia on February 6, 1915 to W.R. and Estelle
Wiley Bryan, some of her most cherished memories were of growing up
in the small, southern Georgia town surrounded by many loving relatives
from both the Bryan and Wiley families.
When she
was 12 years old Jewel moved to Winter Haven, Florida where she
excelled in school and enjoyed an active social life. With an outgoing
personality and loving, helpful attitude toward her classmates, she was
chosen the most popular girl in school and homecoming queen.
She graduated from Winter Haven High School in 1933.
After her
graduation, she moved to Lakeland where she lived the rest of her life.
In Lakeland she enjoyed meeting new friends and neighbors, played
tennis, and loved to dance. She attended many parties and dances, and
at one of these dances she met C. W. Sterling, who she
described as being the best dancer she ever knew.
In 1935 they
were married at the First Methodist Church and together they raised
four children before his death in a traffic accident in 1958.
During this time Jewel did not work outside the home, but she was an
excellent seamstress who made wedding gowns, formals, cheerleading
outfits, and costumes for the yearly dance recitals of students of
local dance instructors. With her sewing ability and a natural talent
for drawing, she often would make a sketch of clothing she saw in
stores or in magazines and create her own patterns for dresses and
formal gowns for her three daughters and her many customers. Jewel
thrived on raising her children, participating in the Dixieland
Elementary School PTA and serving as room mother each year. Through her
sewing, babysitting, contact with students at dance studios, and her
children's friends she knew just about every young person in town, and
they adored her. In later years this rapport with children carried over
to her grandchildren, and she had wonderful memories of the time spent
with them.
After her
husband died she worked outside the home for the first time. She was
fortunate enough to have what she considered to be the best job in town
at Hightower Optical where she worked for 25 years until Mr.
Hightower's retirement. This job offered her the opportunity to learn
new skills in bookkeeping and office management while also enjoying
contact with customers. Through the years she even became an "honorary
member" of the Hightower family, embracing Bob and Markelle's three
children and grandchildren and enjoying many happy hours with them on
family outings. Jewel was one of the oldest members of the First
United Methodist Church, a charter member of the Croton Garden Club
Circle, and a member since 1959 of the Kappa Gamma chapter of Kappa
Delta Phi. After her retirement she enjoyed ten years of helping others
through Viste. She will be remembered as a devoted mother, grandmother,
daughter, and sister as well as being a long time, active resident of
Lakeland. She loved life and especially enjoyed her children and
grandchildren, music, traveling, reading, gardening, and helping others.
Jewel was
predeceased by her parents, her brother, Bill Bryan, her sister, Rena
Bryan Lay, her husband, and two daughters, Carolyn Fay, and Marjorie
Lawrence.
She is
survived by her son, Robert Sterling and his wife, Micheline, of St.
Augustine, and her daughter, Sandra Sterling, of Lakeland. She is also
survived by her cherished granddaughters, Leslie Lawrence of Delray
Beach, Leigh Anne Katusak and her husband, Mark, of Lake Worth, and
Melissa de Baptiste and her husband, Marc, of Delray Beach, two
grandsons, Ray Lawrence, and Bobby Lawrence, and great grandchildren,
Bryan Katusak, and Shannon Vollrath and her husband, Mike. A memorial
service to honor and celebrate Jewel's life will be held in the chapel
of First United Methodist Church on Wednesday, March 19, at 2 p.m.
Flowers can be sent to the chapel or donations made in her memory to
the First United Methodist Church, 75 Lake Morton Drive, Lakeland,
Florida 33801 – Ledger, March 17, 2014
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