By Heather Johnson
Photos courtesy of the family,
Sherry Leigh Atkinson, 62, of Ocracoke, passed away peacefully on Sept. 9, 2024, in ECU Health Medical Center, Greenville, in the company of her loving wife, Laura Michaels.
Born on December 2, 1961, in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, she was a daughter of the late Heidrun Jones and Bill Atkinson.
She grew up and attended college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 1994, she moved to her forever home, Ocracoke Island.
Sherry, like water, was a force! Gentle, nurturing, fierce, and powerful. Strong enough to cut through stone and reshape landscapes. Like the ocean, her love ran deep and wide.
Sherry had a deep love for culinary arts and sharing it with people. It’s been said, cooking, at its soul, is the love of nurturing people and caring for them on the deepest level. Sherry did just that. She loved and cared for people and in doing so created her own family and community while supporting the community in which lived.
After moving to the island she worked in numerous restaurants, forming close bonds with those she worked with, teaching many how to cook on the line, serve, and control the flow.
Working alongside so many young people, she became a sort of surrogate mother to many, loving them, teaching them, guiding them. She had a way of making you feel so supported you believed you could do anything.
She showed up — for her friends, family, and community, cooking for fundraisers, supporting businesses, and the school, officiating friends’ weddings, attending kids’ birthday parties. Whatever life had to offer, she was there with love, understanding and generosity. She volunteered with the NPS ponies for 22 years, providing quality care, maintenance and nurturing bonds with each pony.
To know Sherry meant you knew that she loved women’s basketball — UCONN Lady Huskies to be precise.
Like a good coach she was always cheering you on, teaching, guiding. Shamelessly honest with who she was as a person, she felt relatable, and this drew people to her. Fiercely loyal, she always had your back but would also not hesitate to put you in your place.
In 2000 she found another love, Laura Michaels. The couple married in 2017, sharing 24 years of love and life together.
In addition to her wife, Sherry is survived by her brother, Wayne Atkinson; nephew, Conner Atkinson; and niece, Lauren Atkinson, all of South Carolina.
A Celebration of Life is planned for Dec. 7; time and location to be announced.
The family is asking memorial donations be made to the American Cancer Society at www.Cancer.org. Condolences to the family may be made online at Twiford Funeral Home, www.TwifordFH.com.