Shelia Ann Chapman

October 16, 1963 – April 15, 2025

Shelia Ann Chapman, 61, of Mineola, TX, passed into God's arms at 2:25 a.m. on April 15, 2025, at Tyler ContinueCARE clinic in Tyler, TX. Her death came after a harrowing two-month battle with sepsis and severe complications from stage 4 small cell carcinoma.

Born in Belleville, IL, on October 16, 1963, to Rosemary Lane and Larry Herman Chapman, Shelia grew up to earn a spirit of resilience and a heart for service. She attended New Caney High School in New Caney, TX, and over the course of her life pursued a wide range of careers and volunteer work —including cosmetology, food service, kitchen management, skilled nursing, occupational therapy, commercial driving, secretarial and administrative roles, business correspondence, and ministry assistance. Her adaptability and determination were strengths she demonstrated often in the face of continuous strife and adversity both professionally and personally.

Shelia has called Mineola, Texas her home for the past seven years. She recently became a member of Garden Valley Church in Lindale, and previously worshipped with the community of Bethesda Church. Her faith, sense of humor, and outgoing, verbose nature were hallmarks of her personality. She spoke to and shared with everyone she saw, for better or worse and with little reservation.

She is preceded in death by her third daughter Courttany whom passed as a newborn, her father Larry Chapman, and her second husband Larry Lee Yates with whom she shared more than 30 years of marriage.

Shelia is survived in this realm by her mother Rosemary, her brothers Travis and Larry Wayne, and sister-in-law Crystal. She is also survived by her first spouse John and witnessed by their children: Eric, Brittany, Tiffany, and David Joshua. She is honored in life by her daughters Amber and Kimberly Yates, and her newlywed husband Steven Anderson, whom she married in the eyes of God on February 8, 2025; also left to grieve her unforseen loss are her stepchildren Timothy, Brittany, and Haley. Her beloved dog Malaki and many kindred “found" family and friends, too, bear the weight of her passing.

A woman of quiet creativity and deep heart, Shelia lived a life rich in color, texture, and compassion. She never sought the spotlight but carried within her a private world of doodles, poems, stories, baking and other creative endeavors. Shelia had a deep love for animals and surrounded herself with treasures that reflected her spirit: butterflies, frogs, roosters, horses, and angels and cherubs. She never could quite manage the spelling of "angels"; we always had "angles" watching over us instead. She found beauty in sunflowers and daisies, earth tones, turquoise, and abstract patterns. In her later years, she chose brighter colors, and we like to believe it was her way of making space for joy and vibrance in every possible way. 

The concept of forgiveness, or rather, of worthiness, was always her crucible. She would be broken down just to be rebuilt from bones a thousand times before she would come to truly Know herself as others had witnessed her.

In what would be her final decade, she came to know much restoration. She would gain closure with many cherished loved ones and experience reuniting with many more. She would find true friendship and community after years of surviving the constant crumbling of towers alone. Shelia was always searching her soul for answers to mysterious questions, trying against all odds to make sense of a world she always felt slightly-to-the-left of and unprepared for. She believed in God and prayed daily for Him to fully restore her family and to protect her children. Even when she had no faith left for herself in her darkest of days, she knew grace and she persevered with grit. She was uncrushable; her Spirit was that of a warrior. Quaking with exhaustion, leaning on her staff unrelenting to the finality of defeat, her Will forever outlasts her physical body. Shelia leaves behind a legacy not of grand gestures or saintly acts but one of resilience, creativity, and the raw beauty of imperfection. She was nothing if not adaptable - a living example that it's never too late to change, to learn, to grow.

Shelia Ann Chapman is finally free to spread her aching wings. May we honor her Spirit with respect to duality, tenacity, and the kind of strength that grows from the deep, distinguished roots of imperfection. 

Imadi. 

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