Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 271720
Title: Sheila L. Polries
Date: 9/10/1933-1/26/2019
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 9/10/1933
Summary: Sheila Polries, 85, of Bismarck, ND, formerly of Sykeston, ND, died on January 26, 2019 surrounded by her family, after a short bout of the flu. Services were held at 10 a.m. Saturday, February 2, at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Sykeston. Sheila Lee Barry was born to Theodore and Elsa (Kutz) Barry on Sept. 10, 1933 in Chicago, IL. Sheila was a big city girl, but loved spending summers visiting her cousins in Sykeston, ND. Soon after she graduated from Luther Institute High School in Chicago, she moved to Sykeston with her family to help operate a gas station/café called Tree-O-Non. She loved dances, card parties and good jokes. She met Donald Polries at a Firemen’s Dance in Sykeston and they married on January 28, 1952. Sheila’s life changed dramatically when she became a farmer’s wife. She learned quickly that almost everything enjoyable was centered around the kitchen table. She became a fantastic cook, and anyone who drove into the farmyard (salesman, veterinarian, neighbor, farm worker) was invited to join her family at mealtime. The kitchen table was full as they had eight children in 10 years. They worked together on their farm south of Sykeston for more than 40 years where they raised children, crops and cattle. Sheila enjoyed bowling, reading novels and creative writing which included many long chore lists for her kids. She often wrote poems and was proud to be recognized in a local writing contest. Sheila was very active in her church and community, volunteering at St. Elizabeth’s Church where she was a member of the Altar Society and taught religion classes. She helped organize many events and fundraisers from developing cookbooks to hosting and cooking for large banquets. In 1993, they retired from farming and moved to Carrington, where Sheila was an activity coordinator at Carrington Health Center and then worked at the Garden Gate. In 1996, Sheila moved to Mesa, AZ, and then to Coeur d’ Alene, ID, to care for her mother. She moved to Bismarck in 2005 and enjoyed being close to many in her family. Sheila moved into St. Gabriel’s Assisted Living Community in 2017 and was involved in several committees, recently serving as vice president of the resident council. She had a variety of jobs throughout her life but was most proud of being a Mom, Grandma, and Great-Grandma. Family was most important, and holidays were always special. Feisty, funny, and friendly describe her best. Her ears would always listen, her heart would give advice, and her shoulder would hold your tears. She touched the hearts of many and will be missed. Sheila is survived by her brother, Ted (Betty) Barry, Jr., Fort Wayne, IN; her children, Linda (Charlie) Donlin, Bismarck; Julie (Lyndon) Larson, Mesa, AZ; Peggy (Mark) Anderson, Bismarck; Patti (Bruce) Penas, Fargo; Larry (Cessna) Polries, Jamestown; Jon (Stephanie) Polries, Sykeston; daughter-in-law Kim Polries, Thompson; 22 grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; infant son, Donald Michael Polries; son, David Polries and great-grandson William Polries.
Red ID: FND_I_79216 Image ID: 530056 Image Notes: FND001 271720

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

Enter a subject or term in one or both of the “Search” boxes.

  • “Item Detail” searches the Title, Creator and Summary fields of all item-level records.
  • “Collection Number” searches the Collection Number field only and requires an exact match.

The “DETAILS” button provides additional information about an item, as well as the following options:

  • “Collection Summary” details the contents of the entire collection in which the selected item is located.
  • You can print the image and its corresponding details by selecting “Print".
  • “Digitized Images from the Collection” returns a list of all digitized items within that collection (available from the “Collection Summary” screen).

Click on image to expand/zoom the image view.

“Photobook home” takes you back to the main Photobook page where you can start a new search.

“Featured Collections” showcases new and/or popular collections and the digitized images within those collections.

Information on how to order copies is located here.

The collections preserved in the North Dakota State Archives include over a million images. Only a small percentage of these images have been digitized. This photo gallery provides a preview of the images that have been digitized.

For more information on the non-digitized images, please refer to the finding aids found on our website at history.nd.gov, or ask a member of our reference staff for assistance.