This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 21, 2009 - A profile of Sharyn Kuneman on the Heartland Boating website notes that her retirement plans included living on a Midwestern lake and perhaps restoring another vintage wooden boat, a hobby she'd abandoned more than 25 years ago. It's one of the few dreams that the award-winning travel writer did not get to fulfill.
Ms. Kuneman died Sun., Jan. 7, 2009, at Barnes-Jewish Extended Care in Clayton following a brief illness. She was 58. Funeral services were private.
One of Ms. Kuneman's earliest dreams was to travel. She said so in her 1967 high school yearbook, where she listed "to travel" as her life's goal.
Her travel features and photographs from around the world appeared in diverse publications, including Ladies' Home Journal, Pathfinders Travel, Heartland Boating, Lakeland Boating, Paddler, Bassmaster, Country Discoveries, Women in the Outdoors, Car Collector, Michigan Living and MotorHome.
Her travel articles were also published in such major newspapers as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dallas Morning News, Newark Star-Ledger, San Antonio Express-News, Nashville Tennessean, Charlotte Observer and Columbus Dispatch. She was recently elected treasurer of Midwest Travel Writers Association.
Ms. Kuneman particularly loved traveling anywhere there was water. Born in Erie, Pa., she developed her love of the water as a child growing up in Titusville, Pa., which bills itself as "the valley that changed the world" because it is believed to be the site of the first oil well in the United States.
It was not oil, but Pennsylvania lakes that captivated Ms. Kuneman. She watched her father, William J. Manelick, on his only day off, Sunday, design and hand-build a 14-foot boat that he dubbed "Willy's Folly." But with its maiden voyage on Tionesta Lake in northwestern Pennsylvania, that "folly" captured her heart and her imagination, and forever made her love the water and travel.
"She was a great fisherman," said Jackie Sheckler Finch, a colleague in the travel industry from Bloomington, Ind., who also became a friend. "She'd show up to fish dressed very deceptively in her regular clothes - psychedelic oranges and greens - and tiny black shoes like she was going to a ballet. It would throw the guys off; they thought she didn't know what she was doing. Then she would out-fish them all. But she never rubbed it in.
"When I met Sharyn almost 13 years ago on a trip to Waldo County, Maine, she'd just had Lasik surgery. She couldn't see worth a darn, but she kept snapping pictures and asking me to let her know if she was aiming in the right direction.
"Over the years, Sharyn and I traveled together on more trips than we could count. We swam in a salt water pool in Spain, walked an oil field in Pennsylvania, heard the choo-choo in Chattanooga, climbed the streets of San Francisco, ate shrimp in Alabama, saw manatees in Florida, dined with the Amish in Ohio, explored the Alamo, made snowballs in Utah, heard Porter Wagoner sing at the Grand Ole Opry, kissed the bricks at the Indy 500, dug for fossils in New York, read at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., fished while the sun rose in Kentucky, had a sitz bath in Arkansas, froze in Detroit, rode the train to Virginia and spent the night at a haunted house in St. Louis!"
Another colleague and friend, Debbie Geiger of Geiger & Associates Public Relations in Tallahassee, Fla., agreed that Ms. Kuneman was good company on a trip.
"Our staff used to compete to have Sharyn in the van when we traveled on an assignment because she was so much fun. And she was an amazing storyteller. If we had a long drive, she'd regale us with fascinating stories."
Many of those stories were about her family and their assortment of cats.
"She dearly loved her husband Dave, her son, Steve, and the cats that found their way into her life," Finch said. "Sharyn couldn't turn away a stray. If there was a cat anywhere around, she would find it or it would find her."
David W. Kunneman said, "We had three cats, but she loved all animals. If we had lived in the country, we'd have dogs. We are equal-opportunity pet owners."
On her own website, www.sharyn-kuneman.com , the woman who loved animals and water and travel, proudly declared that she's been sharing her experiences for more than 20 years, noting, "I'm grateful for the opportunity to introduce my readers to the fascinating gems discovered in my own backyard and on the other side of the globe."
"Sherry wanted to give the gift of the world to everyone," said David Kuneman. "She took about 10 trips a year."
Prior to her career as a travel journalist, Ms. Kuneman worked as a case worker for the Chautauqua, N.Y., Department of Health in the 1970s.
When she wasn't traveling, "she loved being close to our son and me," David Kuneman said of his wife of 39 years.
"We met in college at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., my hometown. I lived at home and that worked out well for me because I was able to use Dad's car to take Sherry out," David Kuneman recalled laughing.
So they got married, had a son, and lived on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in western New York State, where they could sail to their hearts' content. Ms. Kuneman eventually returned to college, graduating with honors with a B.S. in English from Virginia State University, in Petersburg, Va., in 1984.
The following year, the Kunemans moved to the St. Louis area and Ms. Kuneman began working at the accounting firm Rubin, Brown, Gornstein and Co. in Clayton.
She also began to explore and enjoy her new hometown.
"She loved all of the St. Louis attractions," David Kuneman said. "VP Fair, Clayton art festival, art museum, history museum, Zoo, the Fox. Holiday celebrations were big at our house. And she decorated our home with her water colors and oil," David Kuneman said. "Sherry explored art as well as literature and her painting style went from scenery to abstracts. "
Kuneman said that his wife's illness drew them closer; that she ignored setbacks. And to the very end, he said, she practiced her guiding philosophy: Do what you love and don't sweat the small stuff. In fact, she didn't sweat the big stuff, either.
Even when she became very ill, Ms. Kuneman continued to plan trips. During her last week, she had planned to visit Finch at her home in Indiana, and the two were going to do what they always did: travel.
"She wanted us to visit Amelia Island in Florida or the Harraseeket Inn in Maine," Finch said. "Neither trip happened. Instead, Sharyn quietly slipped away."
Ms. Kuneman was preceded in death by her father and her mother and stepfather, Marjorie B. Stevenson and James B. Stevenson.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by one son, Steven M. Kuneman, of Maplewood.
Memorial donations in Ms. Kuneman's name be made to any organization dedicated to animal welfare.
Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service.