A thank you note from Ned (4/30/21)
I was comforted by the numerous tributes, stories and photos which friends and family entered onto this memorial website. I also want to thank all of you who sent additional sympathy cards and flowers. These were also much appreciated and I am sorry I didn’t get to call each and every one of you individually.
Sherry was my friend for over 50 years and of course a loving wife and amazing mother. She is missed every day now as I try to move forward. Let me add now some additional thoughts.
As most of you know, Sherry spent half of her working life as a flight attendant. Her benefits provided me and our family a priceless and wonderful opportunity to see the world’s people and places. Let me share with you my favorite story from her airline experiences: Sherry was working as the First/Head Flight Attendant on a United Airlines flight returning to San Francisco. Before the flight took off, as is the usual procedure, she introduced herself to the Captain. He in turn said he was happy to have her aboard and stated: “I’m George Franklin.” Sherry promptly responded with—“I have two brothers with your same name.” He then questioned--“You mean you have two brothers named George? ”No, sherry replied “I have one brother named George and another named Franklin.” The Captain replied “Really?” (Sherry’s maiden name was “Riehle” a German name pronounced “really”). Thus Sherry said “No that’s their last name." The captain then in some visible frustration replied “That’s just fine.” Sherry now countered with “No, that’s my younger daughter!” (Jessica Fine). The Captain told her he was going to leave the plane and come back shortly to start over. As a footnote-- Sherry grew up with nine brothers, besides George and Frank, which also include three named: “Tom, Dick and Harry.”
In reading all the tributes and notes about Sherry, one thing stood out—everyone confirmed Sherry was a very kind and friendly lady who I was proud to be with when meeting countless friends, family and total strangers in all parts of the world. Only one person can I recall had a discouraging thing to say about Sherry—one of my former law partners in Atlanta who deemed her a “damn California women’s libber”. I fortunately didn’t have to work with this guy much later inasmuch as he is still in a Georgia prison for life convicted for murdering his wife.
One final note; Sherry’s ashes will on a date in the near future be buried in a little redwood grove not far from the house where we raised our family many years ago. The redwoods (now huge, some 60 feet tall) were planted from small seedlings given to me several decades ago by my late mother.
Thank you again for all your love and support, particularly to my two daughters who were with me during Sherry’s final days. My children (& especially my 4 grandkids) are the reason I can hopefully move on into the future.
With heartfelt thanks,
Ned
OBITUARY
Sherry grew up on a farm in small-town Wisconsin but ultimately explored the world.
Number ten of eleven children born to Anton and Ida Riehle, Sharon Lee Riehle arrived in the waning months of World War II in Wisconsin. She graduated from nearby Watertown High School in 1963. Encouraged by her older brother Fred, a pilot with United Airlines, Sherry applied to be a flight attendant. It was a highly competitive occupation at the time, but she was hired by United Airlines in 1965. In 1969, she began working for famed Pan American World Airways, an airline practically synonymous with jet-age glamour.
In 1970, on a blind-date orchestrated by friends, she met a young lawyer, Ned Fine, who would become the love of her life and husband of nearly fifty years. Ned had just graduated from the University of California School of Law in Berkeley and was a new associate at Morrison & Foerster law firm in San Francisco. Ned & Sherry were married in San Francisco in September 1972 and enjoyed a round-the-world honeymoon on Pan Am, with stops in many far flung destinations, new to them both.
The couple first lived in San Francisco and then bought a home in the Berkeley hills, where they began raising their two daughters, Rebecca (born in 1975) and then Jessica (1978). The growing family then built a home in Woodside, where the girls finished school before heading off to college. During this time Sherry returned to work, this time for United, and flew for another 15 years. Sherry and Ned moved to the Silverado community in Napa in 2006 after both Ned and Sherry had retired.
Sherry encouraged a love of travel, appreciation of other cultures and traditions in her children and often generously invited other friends and relatives on her global adventures. Sherry and Ned traveled almost everywhere possible in the world: safaris in Africa and the Galapagos; Antarctic excursions; visits to Machu Pichu, Morocco, Mongolia and even Olympics in Sydney; and other journeys to nearly every continent, often on her favorite cruise ships. Sherry always brought a token back from her journeys for her children and then grandchildren. And she loved to capture her journeys in photographs long before the iPhone made it so easy.
Back at home, she relished family and holidays and especially loved her four grandchildren: Isaac, Emmett, Logan and Emily. She was a notorious note-taker as well as a great organizer and planner (famous for her lists, she may have enjoyed the trip planning as much as the trip itself). Sherry found joy in entertaining, her regular book club, mah-jongg gatherings and walking groups. She always loved nature, volunteering in different capacities at Filoli, the house and garden estate in Woodside, and later at Copia in the Napa community.
Sherry suffered a fall in late February (no broken bones), but complications developed and she was cared for with hospice assistance at home and died peacefully on April 6 with family beside her. A couple minutes before her passing, her family played the song “I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane,” not only a song she loved from 40+ years ago, but befitting her usual voyages and this ultimate one.
Sherry is survived by 6 of her Riehle brothers (Dick, Archie, Bill, Frank, George and Tom). She is also survived by her husband, Ned, and her 2 children, Rebecca (Fine) Audiss and Jessica Fine and 4 grandchildren: Isaac & Emmett Kleinman and Logan & Emily Audiss.
Given Covid, no services are being planned at this time.
