Charissa "Cheri" VerHoeven died on Saturday, November 10, 2018 at the Jacobson Memorial Hospital Care Center in Elgin, ND after a year- long fight with cancer.

The Funeral Service will be at 1:00pm MT on Thursday, November 15, 2018 at the Evanson Jensen Funeral Home in Elgin, ND with Pastor Barb Koenig officiating.

Visitations will be on Wednesday from 3-5pm MT and one hour prior to the service on Thursday all at Evanson Jensen Funeral Home.

Cheri will be interred at Pilgrim Home Cemetery at Strasburg, ND.  A graveside Memorial Service is planned for July of 2019.

Charissa Dawn Lewis was born on September 12, 1955 to Patricia and Donald Lewis in Burns, OR.  Much of her childhood was at a ranch near Browning, MT where she and her brothers entertained themselves riding horses, playing hunting with their BB guns, and doing the adventurous things rural children do.  The family experienced life changing events when the nearby Browning River overflowed its banks; remembered locally as The Great 1964 Browning Flood.

In 1964 the family moved to Helena where she graduated from high school and attended Helena Vocational Technical Center, earning her Business Data Processing Certificate.  She went to work for Montana State Radio and worked there until her retirement 20 years later.

At the age of 13, Cheri went to Hawaii as part of a girls group.  After graduation, she did a European tour with grandma Gigi and grandpa.  As a teen, she was a princess for the Shriner's Daughters of the Nile.  She performed at pageants and parades in full stage make-up and far eastern costumes.

Cheri married Miles Wade VerHoeven on St. Patrick's Day in 1991.  They moved to Elgin, ND in 2012 where she was employed by Jacobson Memorial Hospital and a local honey processer.

Survivors include her brothers, Shawn (Beth) Lewis of Helena, MT; and Bryan (Joan) Lewis of East Helena, MT; step-sons Matthew and Mitchell VerHoeven, Bismarck, ND; Auntie Lotus VerHoeven, Elgin, ND; cousin Trish Rios, and her beloved cat Trigger.

Cheri was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Miles, and her dog, Zeb, whose ashes are interred with her.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Jacobson Memorial Hospital Care Center of Elgin, ND.