Cheryl Anne Christman, of Nixa, Missouri, passed away peacefully on Thursday, December 16, 2021 in Springfield, Missouri, at the age of 70 after a quiet but extraordinary life of service to others. She was born in Carroll, Iowa on Friday, November 30, 1951, the eldest of Dean and Carma Hutchins's five children.

Even as a child, Cheryl was unusually mature and even-tempered.  Cheryl, her brother Bob, and her sister Nancy were all born within a period of less than three years.  The three of them were inseparable as small children, and Cheryl always felt a strong sense of responsibility for her younger siblings.  The circumstances of her childhood may have had something to do with her responsible nature.  Unlike most of the kids they knew, Cheryl and her siblings did not have a stay-at-home mom--their mother worked full-time as a teacher.  All of them, but especially Cheryl, were given a lot of responsibilities from very early ages.  In later years, Cheryl, Bob, and Nancy often talked of how they had helped raise one another, and how they had always depended on one another.  She also experienced the precariousness of life very early.  As a small child she was hospitalized with nephritis.  Later she often pointed out that, if it were not for what was then the very recent development of antibiotics, she would not have survived early childhood. The Hutchins family lived in Audubon, a small town in Iowa, until Cheryl was four, when they moved to Kimballton, an even smaller nearby town (with fewer than 400 residents), where they remained until Cheryl was 16, when they moved back to Audubon.  Kids in Kimballton in the 1950s and 1960s lived what would seem by today's standards to be astonishingly unsupervised lives.  If at some point during those years Cheryl was not at home or at school, her parents could probably not have said where she was any more specifically than "somewhere in town."  But, all the while, she maintained her sense of responsibility for her younger siblings--not only Bob and Nancy, but also younger sisters Teresa and, eventually, Leslie. Cheryl went to the Kimballton public school from 1957 to 1965 (kindergarten through seventh grade). For most of those years, she had four classmates.  During her first three years in school, her mother was teaching older kids in the classroom next door. Even as a child Cheryl led a busy and productive life, delivering newspapers, taking piano lessons, participating actively in the local 4-H Club and always attending Sunday school at the First Presbyterian Church in Audubon. She learned how to cook, mostly from her and her siblings' "other mother," Mabel Madsen. She learned to sew as well; by the time she was in high school, she often made clothes for herself and her siblings.  In 1965 Cheryl began attending the public school in Audubon; she graduated from high school there in 1970.  By the time she was a junior in high school she had decided on a nursing career, and, to help her be better prepared for that career, she made arrangements with the high school biology teacher for an individual study program in advanced biology.  This kind of individual program was basically unheard of in her school, and a clear indication of the respect the school authorities had for Cheryl. After high school Cheryl enrolled in the University of Iowa. Cheryl enlisted in the U.S. Army while in college and, after her graduation from the University of Iowa in 1974, served as a lieutenant in the Army. She was stationed at Fort Knox in Kentucky for most of her time in the Army, and was eventually promoted to captain. After the end of her Army service, Cheryl moved to the Twin Cities area in Minnesota.  She worked as a nurse at the University of Minnesota Hospital for six years, then moved to a supervisory position at Waconia Ridgeview Hospital. During that period she obtained an MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. On July 26, 1986 Cheryl married her beloved husband, Max Christman, in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Cheryl and Max were blessed with the births of their two children, Ben in 1991 and Ali in 1994. Cheryl was called into the Special Force Family Ministry in 1983 and continued serving until her retirement in September 2018. Along with serving in the ministry, she also often served as a substitute nurse for the Nixa Public School system. She was a faithful member of Oak Grove Assembly of God. Her highest values were faith, service, and love.  Cheryl's greatest joy in life was being a mother and grandmother. She was also a loving sister and caring friend who was always working behind the scenes. All who knew and loved her will miss her deeply.

Cheryl was preceded in death by her parents Dean and Carma Hutchins and one sister Nancy Wanninger.

She is survived by her husband, Max Christman, son Ben and wife Marissa Christman, daughter Ali Christman, brother Bob and his wife Marla Hutchins, sister Teresa and her husband Mark McLaughlin, sister Leslie Herdman, granddaughter Adalynn Christman, and many nephews, nieces, cousins, other relatives, and friends.

A visitation will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 10 AM at Oak Grove Assembly of God, with a memorial service following at 11 AM. Arrangements are by Klingner- Cope Family Funeral Home. Online condolences may be made at www.klingnerfuneralhome.com Memorial donations may be given in Cheryl's memory to Camp Daniel and may be sent to P.O. Box 892, Nixa, MO 65714. Cheryl's family extends sincere thanks and gratitude to all who have prayed, called, sent cards, cooked meals, dropped off snacks and checked in on them.