CHANA — Sheryl E. Piros of Chana, IL., passed away Feb. 19, 2025, after a long illness. She was born Oct. 7, 1948, to Lorin and Phoebe (Gibson) Larson in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Sherry graduated from Stillman Valley High School in 1966 and Blackburn College in 1970. She taught English to middle school students in Rochelle from 1970 to 1973, and, after staying home to raise her three sons and earning a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University, she taught English part-time at SVHS and then English and drama full-time at Byron Middle School from 1987 to 2004.
She wrote many of the plays her eighth-grade students performed, including Road Kill Café, and after she retired, she continued writing and performing plays in a senior-theater troupe. Her Pie Ladies plays were published and have been produced nationally. Sherry loved reading, particularly Louis L’Amour novels and nonfiction about the Old West. She also loved trying new recipes and learning crafts such as painting, making corn-husk dolls, sewing, crocheting, and tatting. She volunteered at the Chana School Museum, with the Prairie Preservation Society of Ogle County, and at the Leydig Center in Dixon.
Sherry was a thoughtful, caring, and funny person. Her sons knew her as a wonderful mother, strong, supportive, and loving. She showed us how to take care of a family while also satisfying her creative interests, and her boys followed her in their own artistic pursuits.
She married Gene Hagemann in 1971 and with him had sons Matt (Maria Berger) Hagemann, Nace Hagemann, and Dan (Christine) Hagemann. After Sherry and Gene divorced, Sherry later married fellow middle-school teacher Robert Piros in 1994, and after they retired, they spent many years together gardening and growing prairie plants at their farm at Chana, hosting family and friends for meals and ping-pong in their finished barn loft, and camping and canoeing in the Midwest and beyond.
Sherry was preceded in death by her ex-husband, Gene Hagemann, in 1999, and her father, Lorin, in 2016. She is survived by her husband, her mother, Phoebe, her sons, her granddaughter, Ava, and her siblings: Christine (Joe Stemke) Rackley, Masonville, New York; Larry (Marcia) Larson, Lucky (Diane) Larson, and Bruce (Carolyn) Larson, Stillman Valley, IL; and George (Heidi) Gonzalez, Rockford, IL; and many nieces and nephews and stepdaughters.
Sherry’s family is so thankful for the care and love given to Sherry by Chileane Brown-Friar and by the staff of Serenity Hospice & Home.
A memorial service will be held Sunday, May 18, 2025, at the Byron Forest Preserve’s Jarrett Prairie Center from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, Sherry’s family would appreciate donations to Serenity Hospice & Home, Oregon, IL.
Cremation care provided by the Unger Horner Funeral Home, 400 N 6th St., Rochelle. Guest book at www.UngerHorner.com
