Obituaries

Services will be held for Dawn Belden Cantrell who passed away on Dec 19, 2016 at the age of 78. The service begins at 1:00 Friday Dec 30 in Covenant Presbyterian Church, 322 Pecan St Sherman, Tx 75090. The Reverend Lisa Perkins will officiate the service. Dawn, a name synonymous with the rising sun, was a very special, inspiring lady and a stunning beauty. She always lived on the sunny side of the street and was benevolent and well loved by all of her friends and family. She was always in good spirits and had a genuine empathy for others, was always the good Samaritan and willing to help out anyone out, even if she herself, sacrificed. She was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian church. She was some kind of wonderful, absolutely lovely to talk with and had an ability to connect with someone as if she were your best friend. There are really not very many people like her around, today. Dawn Belden was born in Sherman on January 8, 1938 to Harold and Grace Belden to a large extended family of 8 aunts and uncles. Her dad, a fun loving and larger than life figure in the community, raised horses and cattle. Her mother was a nurse and devoted housewife and animal over. She and her family had very early beginnings in Sherman. Her grandfather was a cartographer who laid out many of the streets in Sherman, particularly Belden Street, hence the name. She was very social, extremely intelligent and sold real estate in Sherman and Dallas. Her college background began at UNT in Denton where she was a Drama and English literature major. During school, she became an excellent actress, appearing in several Greek tragedies, one in particular, Medea. Her radiant eyes , spirit and emotional conviction were very conducive to portraying very demanding characters in the plays. Some of the performances were during a dinner theater club. The director was amazed when she was able to remember her lines, serve dinner and act on stage during the performances. She then moved to Dallas to work in the Dallas Public library where she accumulated many stories of all of what she called, characters of the people that would visit the library. She returned to Sherman to study at Austin College where she focused on English literature. In addition to studying, she was a volunteer for many organizations, including the Sherman service league, The Altrusa Club and the Finley Cultural Center. She then met her husband, Don Cantrell and married in 1965, soon becoming a loving mother of twins, when she was in her mid 30’s, while selling real estate. She spent much of her time in her later years to taking care of her eccentric aging aunts and working in the church library. Dawn had a natural talent for composing beautiful things and was formally trained in proper grammar and was fastidious about etiquette. Everything thing she did, her letters she had written, every luncheon or dinner party she hosted was beautiful and eloquently presented and gave a certain humanity to things. Even with her physical ailments, she resolved to keep happy, remained positive, never lost hope and always encouraged her family to live the good life. Someone of this caliber is very hard to find and is sorely missed. She is survived by her husband, Don Cantrell , her twins, Jay Cantrell and Jennifer Cricchio and husband Anthony, her niece and nephew Don and Denise Weeks, and Patricia and Dexter Jackson and her aunt Carolyn Harvey of Branson Missouri. In Lieu of flowers, please send donations to Covenant Presbyterian Church, 322 Pecan St Sherman, TX 75090. As an added honorary, a Mass will be held for the repose of the soul of Dawn Cantrell by Rev. John Fallon of Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Hoover Alabama.