Julia Sherwood
May 8th, 1932 - March 25th, 2025
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Julia's Obituary
Julia Sherwood, 92, of South Haven, Michigan, passed away peacefully at home with family at her side on March 25, 2025.
Born Julia Ann Kohring on May 8, 1932, in Toledo, Ohio, she was the eldest daughter of Leonard and Helen Kohring. Throughout her childhood, the family spent Sunday afternoons at her grandparents’ farm in Pemberville, Ohio, where she and her sister Mitzi would play with their cousins around the farm and in the old-fashioned parlor of the brick farmhouse. In the summertime, the family would pack up the car and go camping across the country, visiting parks and monuments from Mount Vernon, Virginia to Yellowstone National Park. Julia attended Libbey High School in Toledo, where she graduated with honors in 1950. She remained close to some of her high school friends for the rest of their lives. Her friend Harriet Blakesley introduced Julia to her brother John, and she and John started dating while she was in college at Bowling Green State University. There, she was an active member of the Alpha Phi sorority. After she graduated from Bowling Green in January 1954 with a degree in Education, Julia began her career as a teacher.
Julia married John Blakesley in 1955, and the early years of their marriage took them to Cleveland and Willowick, Ohio, a brief stint in Puerto Rico, and eventually a permanent move to Fullerton, California in 1961, where they raised their three children together. Julia was a born organizer. It wasn’t enough to help out with the organizations she joined; somehow, she always ended up in a leadership role. She was a Cub Scout Den Mother, a Girl Scout troop leader, president of the local Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and helped found the Troy Enthusiastic Music Parents Organization (TEMPO), a financial support organization for the local high school band. Later, she returned to education as a substitute teacher before transitioning to a career in art sales and custom framing at Art Showcases, where she worked for several years.
Julia shared her love of nature with her children on family campouts in the California mountains, deserts, and the undeveloped beaches of Baja California. No outing was complete without the flowered carpet bag full of Golden Guides to trees, wildflowers, birds, stars, and of course rocks and minerals, tucked into its designated spot on the front seat of the station wagon. She would read to the family about habitats and cinder cones as the car passed by en route to the next adventure. As the kids got older, the family began backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains with other scouting families, instilling a lifelong love of wilderness in all who shouldered their packs and hiked up the trails.
Julia and John divorced amicably in 1985, and Julia started spending summers in Ohio and Michigan to be with extended family. Her love of Lake Michigan led her to buy a cottage in South Haven perched high above the lake, where she hosted her two grandchildren every summer at what they called Camp Grandma. She also hosted annual cousin reunions, where one of the highlights was her homemade blueberry ice cream. In 1994 she met Bob Sherwood as they were each looking for interesting rocks on the beach below the cottage, and both found an interesting neighbor instead. Bob and Julia built a modern bungalow house together next to the cottage, with a stunning view of the lake and a fireplace in the great room made of rocks they had each collected over the years. Bob and Julia married in 1997, and their mutual love of rocks and minerals brought Julia into the Tulip City Gem and Mineral Club, which Bob had been a member of since 1967.
Julia jumped into the rock club with her usual energy and enthusiasm. She and Bob went on rock-collecting field trips to Indiana, Ohio, Vermont, Oregon, New Mexico, and the upper peninsula of Michigan, accompanied by their dog Sophie. Julia organized some of those trips in her role as Field Trip Coordinator, an office she held for several years. She also served for many years in the following capacities: Vice President, Treasurer, Show Chair, Junior Club Coordinator, Membership Coordinator, Webmaster, and Newsletter Editor. Julia loved teaching people about rocks and minerals, and throughout each year she would bag and label hundreds of rock specimens in small plastic bags. Then, as the club’s annual gem and mineral show neared, an assembly line of club members would sit around the dining room table stuffing specimens into hand-sewn cloth bags as prizes for children at the show. In 2023, Bob and Julia were honored by the American Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies Scholarship Foundation with an award for distinguished achievement in the field of earth sciences.
Throughout her life, Julia enjoyed gardening, singing, hiking, and exploring new locations. She traveled extensively in Europe and Asia with her sister Mitzi, who would often take Julia on reconnaissance trips when she worked as a travel guide. Julia and Bob took many memorable trips overseas, especially to Scotland, Italy, Greece, and Sicily, and she loved meeting up with her grown family in Hawaii and Mexico. One of her all-time favorite trips was showing her granddaughter Jasmine the wonders of Italy and Spain as a high school graduation present. She was a fabulous cook, and her home was always beautiful, welcoming, and neat as a pin. She had boundless energy, keen intelligence, an artistic eye, and a loving heart. Her warmth, creativity, generosity, and dedication to family and community will be deeply missed by all who knew her.
Julia is survived by her loving husband, Bob Sherwood, of South Haven, Michigan; her son Glenn Blakesley (Tina von Moltke) and daughters Jennifer Blakesley and Andrea Blakesley; her granddaughter Jasmine Jones (Andrew Jones); great-grandchildren Tobias Jones and Mallory Jones; granddaughter Nikita von Moltke; and many beloved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her grandson, Forrest Blakesley, her sister Mitzi DeLuca of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and her former husband John Blakesley.
A celebration of Julia’s life will be held on Saturday, August 23rd at 2 pm, at the Howard Miller Community Center in Zeeland, Michigan. In accordance with her wishes, memorial contributions in Julia’s honor may be directed to the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies scholarship fund. Checks made out to AFMS Scholarship Fund can be mailed to: MWF Scholarship Coordinator, 126 Lexington Pointe Dr., Niles, MI, 49120.
Born Julia Ann Kohring on May 8, 1932, in Toledo, Ohio, she was the eldest daughter of Leonard and Helen Kohring. Throughout her childhood, the family spent Sunday afternoons at her grandparents’ farm in Pemberville, Ohio, where she and her sister Mitzi would play with their cousins around the farm and in the old-fashioned parlor of the brick farmhouse. In the summertime, the family would pack up the car and go camping across the country, visiting parks and monuments from Mount Vernon, Virginia to Yellowstone National Park. Julia attended Libbey High School in Toledo, where she graduated with honors in 1950. She remained close to some of her high school friends for the rest of their lives. Her friend Harriet Blakesley introduced Julia to her brother John, and she and John started dating while she was in college at Bowling Green State University. There, she was an active member of the Alpha Phi sorority. After she graduated from Bowling Green in January 1954 with a degree in Education, Julia began her career as a teacher.
Julia married John Blakesley in 1955, and the early years of their marriage took them to Cleveland and Willowick, Ohio, a brief stint in Puerto Rico, and eventually a permanent move to Fullerton, California in 1961, where they raised their three children together. Julia was a born organizer. It wasn’t enough to help out with the organizations she joined; somehow, she always ended up in a leadership role. She was a Cub Scout Den Mother, a Girl Scout troop leader, president of the local Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and helped found the Troy Enthusiastic Music Parents Organization (TEMPO), a financial support organization for the local high school band. Later, she returned to education as a substitute teacher before transitioning to a career in art sales and custom framing at Art Showcases, where she worked for several years.
Julia shared her love of nature with her children on family campouts in the California mountains, deserts, and the undeveloped beaches of Baja California. No outing was complete without the flowered carpet bag full of Golden Guides to trees, wildflowers, birds, stars, and of course rocks and minerals, tucked into its designated spot on the front seat of the station wagon. She would read to the family about habitats and cinder cones as the car passed by en route to the next adventure. As the kids got older, the family began backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains with other scouting families, instilling a lifelong love of wilderness in all who shouldered their packs and hiked up the trails.
Julia and John divorced amicably in 1985, and Julia started spending summers in Ohio and Michigan to be with extended family. Her love of Lake Michigan led her to buy a cottage in South Haven perched high above the lake, where she hosted her two grandchildren every summer at what they called Camp Grandma. She also hosted annual cousin reunions, where one of the highlights was her homemade blueberry ice cream. In 1994 she met Bob Sherwood as they were each looking for interesting rocks on the beach below the cottage, and both found an interesting neighbor instead. Bob and Julia built a modern bungalow house together next to the cottage, with a stunning view of the lake and a fireplace in the great room made of rocks they had each collected over the years. Bob and Julia married in 1997, and their mutual love of rocks and minerals brought Julia into the Tulip City Gem and Mineral Club, which Bob had been a member of since 1967.
Julia jumped into the rock club with her usual energy and enthusiasm. She and Bob went on rock-collecting field trips to Indiana, Ohio, Vermont, Oregon, New Mexico, and the upper peninsula of Michigan, accompanied by their dog Sophie. Julia organized some of those trips in her role as Field Trip Coordinator, an office she held for several years. She also served for many years in the following capacities: Vice President, Treasurer, Show Chair, Junior Club Coordinator, Membership Coordinator, Webmaster, and Newsletter Editor. Julia loved teaching people about rocks and minerals, and throughout each year she would bag and label hundreds of rock specimens in small plastic bags. Then, as the club’s annual gem and mineral show neared, an assembly line of club members would sit around the dining room table stuffing specimens into hand-sewn cloth bags as prizes for children at the show. In 2023, Bob and Julia were honored by the American Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies Scholarship Foundation with an award for distinguished achievement in the field of earth sciences.
Throughout her life, Julia enjoyed gardening, singing, hiking, and exploring new locations. She traveled extensively in Europe and Asia with her sister Mitzi, who would often take Julia on reconnaissance trips when she worked as a travel guide. Julia and Bob took many memorable trips overseas, especially to Scotland, Italy, Greece, and Sicily, and she loved meeting up with her grown family in Hawaii and Mexico. One of her all-time favorite trips was showing her granddaughter Jasmine the wonders of Italy and Spain as a high school graduation present. She was a fabulous cook, and her home was always beautiful, welcoming, and neat as a pin. She had boundless energy, keen intelligence, an artistic eye, and a loving heart. Her warmth, creativity, generosity, and dedication to family and community will be deeply missed by all who knew her.
Julia is survived by her loving husband, Bob Sherwood, of South Haven, Michigan; her son Glenn Blakesley (Tina von Moltke) and daughters Jennifer Blakesley and Andrea Blakesley; her granddaughter Jasmine Jones (Andrew Jones); great-grandchildren Tobias Jones and Mallory Jones; granddaughter Nikita von Moltke; and many beloved nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her grandson, Forrest Blakesley, her sister Mitzi DeLuca of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and her former husband John Blakesley.
A celebration of Julia’s life will be held on Saturday, August 23rd at 2 pm, at the Howard Miller Community Center in Zeeland, Michigan. In accordance with her wishes, memorial contributions in Julia’s honor may be directed to the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies scholarship fund. Checks made out to AFMS Scholarship Fund can be mailed to: MWF Scholarship Coordinator, 126 Lexington Pointe Dr., Niles, MI, 49120.
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