When Steel Talks extends condolences to tuner Billy Sheeder

When Steel Talks extends condolences to tuner Billy Sheeder on the passing of his mother Hilda Ann Sheeder. 

Hilda Ann Sheeder

Hello family & friends. This morning we laid to rest my wonderful mother, Hilda Ann Sheeder (maiden name Stake), beside my beloved father in Saltilla, Pennsylvania. She was 89 years young.

When mom & dad married they birthed two daughters in the ’50’s. In the late ’60’s, my sisters were in a car accident - my surviving sister was badly injured, and my eldest sister - Linda, tragically did not survive the crash. I was born 9 months later. Mom was a piano teacher, waitress, LPN, WV Mountaineer sports fanatic, election official/volunteer, avid bowler, beach seeker, rummy/bridge card club host-queen, and much more. Because of my mom and dad’s sacrifices, I became the first child of our broader family to attend college (WVU), followed by my dear niece and nephew. Mom was the type to forgive and forget, not judge, always gave other people the benefit of the doubt, donor to charities and those in need - even when she needed the money more, and never wanted credit for it.

For many decades she was a singer, piano player, choir director, chime choir director, overall music director, and so much more at our church. She was a proud great grandmother of two, Alex and Anna. While going through thousands of stored pictures of her life this week, I noticed that she’s not in most of them because she would be the one insisting on taking them. In many pictures she is in, however, she’s rocking a fab beehive that puts new wavers The B-52’s to shame, bless her.

Mom loved laughter the most, for all the right reasons it exists. She loved Elvis Presley’s “I can’t help falling in love with you”, Liberace, Andrea Bocelli, Queen, Triple Shot, opera, classical music, calypso/soca, hymns and Christmas carols, and pan (especially Renee Panchita Ogiste and Andy Narell), and much more as a lifelong musician. She loved quarterback Major Harris, and would get extremely frustrated if she couldn’t watch every WVU football or basketball game on TV from beginning to end, especially so if they didn’t show the Pride of West Virginia marching band. I must confess I stole her t-shirt that says “Mountain Mama”. She cherished life, and so she lives on in our hearts and spirit. There is so much more to write but I must digress, filled with love and gratitude.

A funeral service will be held in her honor this Saturday at 11:00 AM at Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, PA. Thank you so much for everyone involved in putting it on, you know who you are!

This photograph of my mom and dad has always been my favorite - the two of them together in 1952 at Coney Island at the Wonder Wheel in the photo booth. -- Billy Sheeder