Brenda Williams Leap passed away January 21st at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, MO where she was taken for emergency pulmonary treatment in the early morning. She was 79 years old and a resident of Tunas, Mo for almost 40 years with her surviving husband Gerald Leap. Brenda was preceded in death by her parents, Eugene and Doris Williams.

Brenda was a lifelong resident of Missouri, with short stints out of state. Born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1946 to Edelbert Eugene “Bill” and Doris Ann Williams. Her Brother, Mike was born a year later. The family moved frequently but eventually made its way to the Lake of the Ozarks where Brenda called home for most of her life. She grew up skiing on the lake behind john boats with her brother and close friends as they traversed back and forth to work on a quiet but burgeoning lake in the 1960’s. She was still able to recall skiing in the wintertime where they never got wet! She graduated from Camdenton High School in 1963 and went on to study at SMSU in Springfield. She Married James Sherman of Sunrise Beach in 1966 and they had 2 children, Tristan Sherman Quirmbach and Matthew Sherman. Brenda and Jim divorced in 1985 and she went to work for the Missouri Department of Conservation where she worked in administration in multiple departments until retiring from Lost Valley Fish Hatchery in Warsaw.

Brenda remarried in 1992 to Gerald Leap of Camdenton, Mo. They shared a love of many things including amateur radio, low impact living, river kayaking, travel and family. She held a General license in amateur radio and was an active member of the Lake of the Ozarks Radio Club for many years, providing services like radio communication during tornado cleanup in Sikeston, MO and statistical reporting after the flood of 1993. She communicated with astronaut Owen Garriott aboard space shuttle Columbia via shortwave. Her call sign was KA0PGN. Brenda spent many hours in a kayak paddling rivers around the country with Jerry and their family. Highlights included week long floats on the Buffalo River in Arkansas and the Rio Grande in Big Bend Nat’l Park. She coordinated these events with her typical exuberance and attention to detail, two of her hallmarks. Her favorite boat boasted the many rivers she had paddled with artful maps of each drawn by her daughter Tristan. Despite her experience with numerous streams across the country, the Niangua River remained dearest to her heart. Perhaps her favorite thing in this world was the house she and Jerry built on their land near Leadmine State Forest. This was a labor of love that began in 1986 when she and Jerry rebuilt his house on weekends, by themselves, with practically no money and no financing. Milling their own lumber and working only by generator power, the 2 of them built a homestead that was her solace for 40 years and is known as Window Rock. Brenda was an avid wildflower gardener and was constantly collecting seeds along roadsides and wherever she could find them. 

She has influenced many gardeners in her time, most of all her daughter, and held a special love for dogwood trees. Her favorite time of year was in the spring when hundreds of them can be seen blooming from inside the house and throughout the property of Window Rock where no dogwood trees are allowed to be cut in her honor. Many family get togethers and celebrations have convened at Window Rock, including their famous, annual September party and multiple weddings. Brenda loved to read, she loved to weave, she appreciated art and held aesthetics almost as high as practicality. She believed a person should leave a place better than they found it.

No memory of Brenda is complete, however, without mentioning her love of the natural world and the important role we play to conserve it. She felt a duty towards this end and practiced a conservationists attitude in her daily life that has influenced many people in subtle, yet poignant ways. Her belief was passionate and examples of it flourish throughout her life like the wildflowers she planted and adored. Brenda leaves behind her husband, Jerry, her brother Michael Williams of Warrensburg, MO, her daughter Tristan Sherman of Lexington, MO and her son Matthew Sherman of Lilburn, GA as well as 3 grandsons: True Hardin Sherman, Zachary Eugene Sherman, and River James Sherman; niece Shayna Edwards, and two grand nieces: Chesni Edwards and Emma Jean Wiltrout.