Sheila Harmon Ammons passed peacefully at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Thursday, July 18, 2024, after a two-year cancer journey. Her family wishes to express appreciation for the support of dear friends and loved ones through this time, and especially to the teams of medical professionals who have provided such attentive and warm care to all of us.

Throughout her life Sheila loved two places and their communities more than all others: her grandparents’ farm in northern Iredell County and The Children’s Home (now Crossnore Communities for Children) in Winston-Salem. As a young child, the farm was cemented in her heart as a magical, sacred place of natural beauty and deep belonging. The community of cousins and extended family, along with the love of her grandparents, was a sustaining force throughout her life. As an adult she loved stewarding the old family homeplace, and its preservation was a lifelong passion. She spent the last 15 years of her life back on that farm, after she and her husband John retired in 2009.

Sheila first came to what would become her other favorite place in 1956, when she and her sister moved with their parents, Dwight and Texie Harmon, to The Children’s Home. Dwight was initially hired there to teach science and industrial arts (including to his future son-in-law), and later moved into administration. The family immersed themselves in campus life, and Sheila was an active participant in The Children’s Home community as a young person. It was there, in her eighth-grade year, that she began her lifelong love story with John, who in reference to their high school courtship still calls her his “little vintage cheerleader.” On January 4, 1969, during their senior year in college, Sheila and John married at The Children’s Home United Methodist Church. In their early twenties they returned together to The Home to work and raise their family on campus. She dedicated her nearly forty-year career to supporting its mission as an educator, mentor, and tenacious advocate for children and families — leading John to say that she was “a friend to all, and mother to many.”

Within her immediate family, Sheila is survived by her husband John; children Amy Jones, Brian Ammons, and Tim Jewett; their spouses Jason, Gareth, and Regan; and her grandchildren, Aaron and Wesley Jones. She is also survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Joan and Earl Lewis, their children and grandchildren, and her beloved aunts, cousins, and extended family. Additionally, she is survived by her pets Addy and Sunny, who brought her so much joy.

She will be remembered for her commitment to fairness, steadfast kindness, gentle strength, gracious hospitality, and loving spirit. She inspired those who knew her to make our little corners of the world a bit brighter by opening our hearts and lives to all whose paths we cross. We will surely feel her absence in the coming days, but more we will relish in her presence when we encounter the laughter of a child, the blooming of a mayapple, the taste of a strawberry, and the joy of a good story shared among people who cannot help but know they are loved.

A service of remembrance and celebration of Sheila’s life will take place on Thursday, July 25, at 2 p.m. at Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home, 705 Davie Avenue, Statesville, N.C.

If you would like to honor Sheila with a gift, we invite you to consider Crossnore Communities for Children (www.crossnore.org/donate-now), or to simply open your home and heart to some soul needing to find shelter there, as she so often did.

Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home is serving the family.