Sheralyn C. Riggs

Stephentown – Sherri Riggs, 61, passed away in the company of friends in Edgewood, NM, on Friday, January 11, 2013, after a valiant, three year struggle against cancer.
Sherri was born in Burlington, VT. She grew up in Williston, VT, and graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Marine Biology. She participated in research in oyster farming in Maine while a UVM student.
After graduation, she returned to Maine to teach in the far north coastal area. Eventually she moved to Portland, OR, and worked there for a company that made medical testing equipment doing promotions and advertising before deciding she needed a little more sunshine in her life. She found the sun in New Mexico, where she designed and built her home and business in Edgewood.
Sherri loved photography, nature and creating something from nothing. She described herself as an artist rather than a scientist and indeed she was. Many landscapes and businesses bear witness to her artistry in metal with the myriad of gates, signs and landscape installations, each with her Chickadee signature hidden in the design. Sherri was featured in a book, Passion and Power: Metal Artists in the Western U.S., celebrating metal artists in 2010.
Sherri is survived by her mother, Christine Moffatt Riggs of South Burlington, VT, and two brothers, Terry and his wife Mary Lynn Conant Riggs of Fletcher, VT, and Gary and his wife Susan Bundy Riggs of Bakersfield VT. She is also survived by her sister, Dale Ila Riggs and her husband Don Miles of Stephentown, NY, as well as by numerous nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins around the country.
It was her wish to have her friends remember her with a joyous, life- celebrating gathering at her home and to consign her ashes to the winds. Her effervescent and free spirit should not be contained in just one place. We are confident that everywhere her essence comes back to earth will always be a place of peace, harmony and beauty.
A family gathering took place at the home of her brother Terry and his wife Mary Lynn on Sunday, January 13.
If one wishes to, remembrances may be made to an animal shelter of one’s choice. Her three dogs and two donkeys would surely appreciate it