Willodae White Sternfield
Funeral Service: 12:00 Noon, Saturday, November 11, 2023
Location: Weymouth Funeral Home
Interment: 1:00 p.m., Saturday, November 11, 2023
Location: Peninsula Memorial Park
Willodae White Sternfield, 96, died peacefully on November 4, 2023, after a long battle with dementia. She survived a 2014 hemorrhagic stroke, but was able to walk with help and walkers for many years afterwards. Her husband was her key caretaker for many years, assisted by wonderful nurses (Clementine, Audrey and Marsha). She was born in 1927 in Newport News (Hilton), and was a lifelong Newport News resident.
She volunteered in the 1970s at Patrick Henry Nursing Home, and she was instrumental in getting residents to communicate for the first time in years. In her twenties, she danced ballet. As a weight lifter, she was instrumental in initiating the practice of female weight lifting at a Cincinnati male gym. She wrote many poems and stories. She was extremely artistic and painted many paintings, some of which hung in a Newport News gallery. She read thousands of books, including all the classics, many medical books and novels, and was an avid stamp and coin collector. She was a very caring, warm lady, with a strong faith in God.
Willodae was predeceased by her parents, Della Vivian Webb and James Holmes White; her brothers, James Allen White and Claude Lee White; her daughter, Elaine Robin Tyburski Sofikitis and two grandchildren (Angela Tyburski Walton and John Anthony Tyburski Jr.)
She’s survived by her husband, Gene Jules Sternfield; her daughters, Lisa Faith Sternfield (who also lived with her and helped with her care many years), Claudia Lee Tyburski Maydanis; her son, John Anthony Tyburski; three great grandchildren; two great-great grandchildren and her sisters, Peggy White Lash and Shirley White.
A Funeral Service will be conducted at 12:00 noon on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at Weymouth Funeral Home by Bishop Carl Miller of Gates of Praise Church (Hampton). Interment will take place at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at Peninsula Memorial Park. Arrangements by Weymouth Funeral Home.
