Dana Ruth Cherry

Dana Ruth Pirtle Cherry was born on October 11, 1929 in Channing, Texas to Reuben Candler (Sr.) and Leota Mae Nash Pirtle. She passed away on July 25, 2021 in Odessa, Texas. As she wanted it expressed, “She lived a lot of life in between those dates.”

Dana grew up on the family farm in Throckmorton County and graduated from Throckmorton High School, Class of 1947. She continued her education at McMurry College and graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in mathematics in 1951.

Upon graduating from TCU, Dana accepted a position as an engineering technician at Humble Oil & Refining Company (now Exxon-Mobil) in Midland, Texas. At Humble she met James Cecil Cherry, whom she married in 1954. Their marriage was blessed with a daughter, Lynn, born in 1956 in Midland. Work took the young family to Venezuela in 1957 at the Quirequire Camp for the Creole Oil Company in the Orinoco Delta area of the country. Their son, Mark, was born in Venezuela.

The family moved back from South America in 1959 and settled on a farm near the small town of Scooba, Mississippi. Although not her career of choice, Dana started her teaching career in Dekalb and taught junior and senior high math as well as Spanish. As a non-traditional student she completed her education with a master’s degree from Mississippi State University in 1967.
In 1970 Dana and her family moved to Cleburne, Texas, where she taught junior high math. In 1980, she resumed her oilfield career as an engineering technician with a small reservoir engineering consulting firm. Upon retirement in 1991, Jim and Dana moved to Trinity, Texas. With an established tradition of moving about every ten years, they moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, followed by their final move to Odessa, Texas in 2010.

Dana was an avid bridge player, and a talented knitter, crocheter, and embroiderer. She was also a talented singer and pianist. She was an alto in the choir at TCU and in the Methodist churches she attended during her lifetime. She began playing the piano and organ in her church in Throckmorton as a teenager and continued to do so in Mississippi. Other church activities included United Methodist Women and teaching both Sunday School and Vacation Bible School when her children were young. Well into her 80’s, she put her math skills to work in helping the “old folks”, most of whom were younger than her, complete their tax returns. Having grown up in Texas with an older and a younger brother, she knew her own mind and how to stand up for herself. She passed on her dry sense of humor and way of looking at the world to her son, who cherishes her memory.

Dana was pre-deceased by her parents, her husband, Jim, her daughter Lynn Jacquet, her brothers R. C. (June) Pirtle, Jr. and wife Mavis, and William Nash (Bill) Pirtle and wife Judy, as well as two nieces and three nephews. She is survived by her son, Mark, and wife Tracie of Midland, Texas, and son-in-law Tim Jacquet of New Orleans, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The family will hold services for Dana at a later date.

Arrangements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory of Midland. Online condolences may be made at www.npwelch.com.

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