Juanita "Nita" Cleveland Merriweather, 84, passed away on November 16, 2023, surrounded by her daughters. Nita suffered a stroke the prior week. She was able to communicate following the stroke and she showered her family with kind words and kept her wonderful sense of humor. Nita was adored by her family and friends, who have countless stories of her generosity and kindness. People from all points of her life have described Nita as their best friend or second mother.

Nita was born on September 7, 1939, in Sibley, IA. Her mother Frances Cleveland was a first-generation Dutch immigrant and Nita maintained friendships with her Dutch cousins all her life. As a young child, she moved with her parents and older sister to Lawrence, KS and became a life-long University of Kansas Jayhawk. She met her husband Terry when they both had parts in the church Easter play. He was a pharmacy student at KU and Nita became an art student there shortly before they married in 1958. While Terry was in the National Guard, he learned by letter that Nita was expecting their first child. Nita was an excellent and prolific letter-writer her whole life. Any life event, challenging or happy, deserved a note, and she would sometimes write with the sole purpose of telling someone how much she admired them.

Nita and Terry moved to Hutchinson, KS in 1967 and raised their children there. They were long-time members of Tenth Avenue United Methodist Church where Nita was director of the Sunday school program. Nita worked for 25 years as a medical librarian at Hutchinson Hospital. She was much-admired there for always going above and beyond and was given in 1984 the Krause-Carey award for best hospital employee. Terry was Director of Pharmacy for Dillons Stores until his death in 1992.

Nita moved to Dallas in 2001 to be near her children and grandchildren. She was an active member of the senior living community at Good Samaritan Society Denton Village. Just in the week prior to her stroke, she cared for fellow residents who were sick, dressed up for Halloween, and hosted a party to celebrate the Texas Rangers World Series victory. Prior to Good Samaritan, Nita was everyone's friend at her condominium community in Dallas, always supporting her neighbors in any way she could, and a member at First United Methodist The Colony where she was active in outreach and ministry. Through the PEO philanthropic organization, she co-led a scholarship and mentoring program for international graduate students at the University of North Texas, where she was instrumental in helping four students receive PEO's International Peace Scholarship. She held these students close to her heart and kept in touch long after they left school.

In this role and others, Nita was an appreciator of all things. She was respectful and reverent to other cultures and religions, taught that by her parents who housed international students at KU. She was an amateur photographer and took thousands of photos of family and nature. She loved classic movies like Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz. Every grandchild's activity and accomplishment were celebrated. While in Texas, Nita maintained her strong devotion to the KU Jayhawks, watching games and decorating her door with KU cheer. She wrote frequent emails to the sports editor of The Dallas Morning News to complain when a big KU victory was "buried" on an inside page.

Nita was perhaps best-known in her later life for her beautiful holiday sugar cookies. No one made cookies like Grandma Nita. Hers were delicate and delicious, impossibly thin, and decorated with an artist's touch. She made them for every season: Valentine's Day hearts, spring flowers, graduation mortar boards, fall pumpkins, and a range of holiday cookies including elaborate snowflakes and nutcrackers. In 2006, her entry won The Dallas Morning News Cookie Man contest. At Good Samaritan, she made a platter of cookies for each new resident with the centerpiece a Texas map and Denton marked with a heart.  We remember her big heart and beautiful smile. She was the most generous, kind, funny, and loving person we knew, and we are grateful for her beyond measure.

Nita was preceded in death by her husband Terry Merriweather and son David Merriweather. She is survived by her daughters Ruth Ann Dorrill, Sue (Roger) Parks, and Sarah (Patrice Lyke) Merriweather; grandchildren Valerie and Natalie Parks, Tenley (Ryan) Dickey, Brenda (Peter) Brinkhaus, Ethan and Hank (Ariel Medina) Young, Penner and Ben Lyke, Isabella Merriweather, and Whitney Sheppard; great-grandchildren Vivian Dickey and Jacob Brinkhaus; sister Margie Kehrberg; much-loved nieces and nephews; and innumerable family and friends.

A memorial service and reception will take place in the chapel at Good Samaritan Society Denton Village, 2500 Hinkle Dr., Denton, TX 76201 on Saturday, December 16 at 2PM CST. A burial service will be held in Hutchinson at a later date. Donations in Nita's remembrance may be made to the Terry L. Merriweather Memorial Scholarship at the KU School of Pharmacy at P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044 or www.kuendowment.org/givenow or to the Good Samaritan Society Foundation at www.give.good-sam.com .