James "Clyde" Sheek

JAMES "CLYDE" SHEEK Funeral services for James "Clyde" Sheek a lifelong Mancos resident will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 18 at the Mancos First Baptist Church. Pastor Rick Gregory will officiate. Interment is to follow at the Sheek Cemetery in Mancos. James Clyde Sheek was born January 9, 1922, on his Grandmother Martha Keener's homestead, northeast of Mancos. His parents were Hilda Coral Keener and Lee Wesley Sheek. The family rode and worked on the railroad in southwestern Colorado until it was time for Clyde to start school. At that time, they returned to the Keener homestead, which they purchased. Clyde walked to the Menefee School until he finished eighth grade. When he was older he would bring in the wood and start the fire for school that day. He transferred down to Mancos High School where he was graduated in 1940. When World War II began, Clyde enlisted and was assigned as an aircraft mechanic. He went to school at the Boeing School of Aeronautics in California and was then sent to England where he repaired and inspected aircraft engines. When the war ended, he joined the many sent back on "liberty" ships. Before going to war, Clyde was studying to join the border patrol. However, his parents needed him on the ranch, and the dutiful son remained in Mancos. Clyde and Pansy Irene Barrett were married November 18, 1949 in Mancos and celebrated their 65th anniversary in 2014. With his father and Uncle Dan Sheek, Clyde built and operated the Lariat Inn on the east side of Mancos for several years. Clyde's primary responsibility, however, was the ranch, its land and its cattle. He ran cattle on forest service land using the permit first granted to his Grandmother Keener. The cattle wintered on family land situated on the east side of Mesa Verde National Park. Clyde and Irene essentially retired from ranching in the mid-1980s. He was a member of the First Baptist Church in Mancos and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Clyde was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Irene Sheek; children, Diana Greer and husband, Steve, Wesley Sheek and wife, Cheryl, and Gary Sheek; his grandchildren, Lee Sheek and wife, Stephanie, Cody Sheek, Jeremy Sheek, Colt Sheek and wife, Claire, Kathryn Grice and husband, Jason, Alexis Sheek, Andrew Greer, and Deborah Lundquist and husband, Chris; and six great grandchildren. Memorial contributions can be made in memory of Clyde Sheek with the First Baptist Church of Mancos.