SANDRA JEAN LAMESFIELD BROWN SNOWBALL
Wife of Thomas Earl Snowball, AAFA #0895
1942 MI – 1998 MI
Source unknown
_____, Genessee Co., MI—_____ August 1998
Snowball, Sandra Lamesfield (Brown)—Of Goodrich,
age 56, passed away with her family at her bedside Sunday, October 11, 1998 in
Sparrow Hospital, Lansing. Funeral services will be 11 PM Friday October 16,
1998, at Hill Funeral Home, 11723 S. Saginaw St., Grand Blanc, MI, ... with
interment at Evergreen Cemetery....
Sandy was born in Flint on February 4, 1942, a
daughter of Frank and Vivian (Woods) Lamesfield and lived in Genesee County for
the past 16 years. She married Thomas Snowball on December 23, 1989 at the
Crossroads Village Church. She was a 1960 graduate of Grand Blanc High School.
Sandra attended Eastern Michigan University, Western Michigan University and U
of M. She was a member of the Flint Genealogy Club. Sandra was a volunteer in
the Ann Arbor and Flint area for Braille and sign language. Mrs. Snowball had
been employed as a secretary at the English Meadows Mobile Home Community in
Jackson.
Surviving are: her husband Thomas, 2 children
Kimberly and husband Weinholt of OH and Kevin and wife Cherise Brown of GA; 2
stepchildren, William Snowball and Tonya Snowball both of FL; 4 grandchildren;
father, Frank Lamesfield and Trudi of Boyne City, MI; brother, Chris and Sharon
Lamesfield of Lapeer; 2 nieces; former husband Gary Brown of Ann Arbor.
She was preceded in death by her mother, Vivian
(Woods) Lamesfield, grandparents, John George Woods/Charles I. Bates and
“Peggy” Vena Mildred (Burnam) Woods, Frank Nicholas and Elizabeth Ann (Crook)
Lamesfelder/Lamesfield.
AAFA NOTES: SSDI
records confirm the birth and death dates of Sandra L. Snowball (SS# issued in
MI), last residence Goodrich, Genesee Co., MI.
Sandy died following surgery for a brain tumor.
Even throughout the treatment she managed to do work for AAFA and was part of
the team doing input for the Master Book List. She received a Distinguished
Members citation at the Kentucky meeting. On 3 June 1998, Sandy wrote to Gil to
discuss some genealogical work she had been planning to do. Her email is filled
with her special spirit:
Lots been happening at
this end; I’ve lost half of my eyesight and so can’t drive anymore. Tom and I
live way out in the country just to add to the fun. It’s just possible that I
will never be able to drive again. I’ve had a brain tumor removed, then lots of
radiation—I am no longer 1/2 baked, but as of yesterday I am 100% cooked.
:)—and in a month chemo is to start. As you can tell it’s been real boring all
the way around. I do know one thing; I am tired of seeing doctors and medical
professionals of all sorts, but it seems they aren’t done seeing me and won’t
be for some time to come. But I shouldn’t complain; I’ve been seeing Neuro
thises and thats since I was 12 and I am now in the hands of the best group of
Drs I’ve ever run across—bar none. They are totally patient oriented and very
caring and on top of it all they are world class Doctors who aren’t full of themselves
(you know the sort—I’m a doctor; kiss my feet.). Confidence is half the battle
and they’re doing a lot of the fighting for and with me which certainly helps.
That and my Tommy is a wall that I can lean on when needed....
We had been planning on
coming to Kentucky and all of my medical stuff has sort of knocked everything
out of kilter and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting there after all. And we
were really looking forward to it....
Oh, and I have quite a
bit more information about Martha. Just after the blindness started I rcvd
Henry Snowball’s entire military records. They included several affidavits re
Martha and her first two husbands, who they were, how they died, when, etc. in
with her Widow Claim or whatever it’s called. I could read some of it and now
that the surgery is over I might be able to make a little better headway on it.
But I’ll have to send those the same way and it will take time for me to
decipher some of what is there because half of my eyesight just comes and goes
with no real consistancy.
Oh, one last thing, .
Martin Alford (I sent you an affidavit that he had signed re Henry Snowball’s
claim for pension/disablility) was a brother of Martha. I saw it somewhere in
the 229 pages of records that came re Henry. Now if I can just relocate it.
That one may take more time, because reading has become so difficult and time
consuming for me.
Regards,
Sandy in cold, stormy MI
Written by Sandy’s 16-year-old niece Nicki Lamesfield
13 October 1998
Born into this world as
Sandra Jean Lamesfield, leaving as Sandra Lamesfield Snowball. To me she was
just Aunt Sandy. And I was her Munchkin.
Aunt Sandy was my first
babysitter—and last. She always looked out for me and did what was in my best
interest. She was the only one throughout my life never to let me down on
anything. She was always there for me whenever I asked. She was at all of my
concerts and performances. She instilled a confidence in me like no one else.
When she said I could do something, I genuinely believed it. She never lied to
me, which is probably why I had such confidence. No matter how sick or busy she
was, she was always there for me one hundred and fifty percent and made sure
that I knew it. We were not only Aunt and niece, but we were also friends. I
could tell her anything and everything, which I did, and know that it was
between us and the four walls surrounding us.
She and I looked at
ourselves the same way. “We are the normal ones,” she’d say, “everyone else is
just trying to be like us.” She was the one person in the family that I could
even begin to compare myself to. She was the only person in my entire life to
give me a straight answer when I asked a question. Sure, she told me every
detail in-between, but I eventually got the answer. She was a great story
teller. I loved to listen to her. I would just listen to her for hours in
silence (a great feat for me). And it wasn’t just because she wouldn’t give me
a chance to talk, simply because I idolized this woman. Those of you who knew
her, know that she could go on and on for hours. And you never dared to ask
another question or she may lose all other train of thought.
This woman was the most
important person in my life. And it took her dying for me to realize it. I
regret not spending more time with her, but cherish the time that I did spend
with her. She may not have been anyone else’s hero, but she was my hero. The
fact that she would continue smiling knowing that she only had months to live
really shows courage and strength, the strength that I hope to have eventually.
She continued to have fun. She still had the same vivacity for life as she
always did. It was just a little bit slower and some time in slow motion, but
she still wanted to live.
We must continue to
live on as she would...full of fun. That is a true hero in my eyes. So I close
this by sharing advice that was between the two of us. Wherever in life you may
go, always remember three things: always have a map, live for the fun times in
life, and always pack lots of banana chips. I love you, Aunt Sandy.
Her husband’s Alford lineage, from his
great-grandmother: Martha 1841 OH4, Oliver 1795 VT5,
Oliver 1767 VT6, Benedict 1716 CT7, Benedict 1688 CT8,
Jeremiah 1655 CT9, Benedict 1619 England10.
