Fifty years ago, in May 1974, Sheree looked forward to graduating from Round Rock High School. Having recently celebrated her 18th birthday, she was finalizing plans to attend Stephen F. Austin State University and narrowing down her dress for the senior prom. The week before her graduation, she was killed in a car accident.

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Sheree was voted class secretary and “cutest” by her senior classmates. This was a fitting term not only because of her petite and pretty appearance but also because she was endearing to all, easy to be around, and authentic.

Sheree played the viola in middle school and the flute in high school. She loved waterskiing, dancing, and helping others.

Her helpful and hopeful nature led her sister, Pamela, to recommend the name for a new congregation formed within months of Sheree’s death: Hope Presbyterian Church.

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As the fiftieth anniversary of her tragic death approached, Sheree's brother Gary reflected,

'Part of the grief of someone dying so young is that you remember who they were but lose out on who they would become. I have no doubt Sheree would have been a teacher or worked in some other manner helping people. But we will never know how wonderful and meaningful her life would have been. All memories of her are stuck in May 1974. But music, music lives, flows and moves through time.

That’s why I discussed with Carlos a composition in remembrance of Sheree. I believe that through music, we will remember her endearing charm and spirit and envision all she would have lived into and hoped for.

Your donation to the New Chorale Music Society will help underwrite the expenses for a composition written in Sheree’s memory and its performance in the Fall of 2024.

Sheree Lynn Mathews

April 15, 1956 - May 18, 1974

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