SHERIDAN - Services for Rita Jean Sherman, 68, will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Joseph Keys officiating. Interment will follow in the Sheridan Municipal Cemetery.

She died April 18, 1998, at the University Hospital in Denver.

She was born Dec. 27, 1929, in Sheridan, the daughter of Roger Roy and Alice Mae (Richardson) Rochford. She was raised in Sheridan, graduated from Sheridan High School and received her master's degree in home economics from the University of Wyoming in 1950.

She married Lester Sherman in Buffalo on May 25, 1968 and he preceded her in death in 1988.

Prior to her marriage, she taught school in Thermopolis and Yakima, Wash., for six years. They lived in Buffalo, where she was the county extension agent for Johnson County for 15 years and retired in 1973. They then moved to Sheridan, where they owned and operated Sherman Auto Supply until they sold the business in 1988. She then worked for Sheridan Head Start and retired in 1997.

She was an artist and enjoyed sewing, liked to travel and especially was an active member of the First United Methodist Church. She was also a member of the Hill and Dale Homemakers Club.

Survivors include her daughter, Leslie Perkins of Billings, Mont., and her sister, Ruth Joan Helmerick of Longmont, Colo.

Memorials may be designated to the Methodist Church Missions Committee or Rocky Mountain College Scholarship Committee, in care of Delphine Toner, First Interstate Bank, P.O. Box 2007, Sheridan, 82801.

Arrangements are with Champion Funeral Home.

Casper Star-Tribune â€" Apr. 21, 1998.