Cheryl Bastyr, 67, Owatonna

Cheryl A. Bastyr was a lifelong teacher, enriching hundreds of elementary minds over the years. The most significant lesson she taught was how to deal with adversity. Throughout her three-and-a-half-year fight with pancreatic cancer, she demonstrated faith, grit, determination, and acceptance of the card she was dealt. She fought a good fight which gave us three years more than the initial prognosis. She died June 21, 2022.

Friends greeted the family at Brick-Meger Funeral Home on Sunday, June 26, 2022. Mass of Christian Burial was at St. Joseph Catholic Church Monday, June 27, 2022, with visitation one hour prior to the service at the church.

Cheryl was born Feb. 5, 1955, in New Prague, to Lloyd and Dorothy Svoboda. She graduated from New Prague High School in 1973 and then went to Mankato State University to obtain her Bachelor of Science in Education. In May of 2009, she obtained her Master of Education from St. Mary’s University in Winona. She started her teaching career in Jackson, and then taught in Granite Falls and Sleepy Eye until she moved with the family to Owatonna where she taught at St. Mary’s School for 20 years.

At her 10-year class reunion, she met the love of her life, John Bastyr. They were married July 13, 1985, and started their married life in New Ulm. In 1991, they moved to Owatonna where they have made their home since. They were blessed with three children. As much as she loved inspiring minds in her classroom, it was being a wife, mom, mother-in-law, and her newest title of being a grandma that she reveled in. Everyone was subjected to her teachable moments and enjoyed her cooking and baking.

When not teaching, she enjoyed family vacations, reading, visiting family and friends, watching TV, playing cards and baking. She was especially known for her famous monster cookies and gave away over an estimated 100,000 of them. People would get the recipe to try and make the cookies themselves, but they always said, “They aren’t quite like Cheryl’s.”

She is survived by her husband John of Owatonna; children Andrew (Emily) Bastyr of Mankato, Jacob Bastyr of Owatonna and Anna (Taylor) Hulett of Arvada, Colo., four fun-filled grandsons Eli, Jonah and Noah Bastyr and Henry Hulett; siblings Terri (Wayne) Bentson of Rosemount, Jim (Barb) Svoboda of Bel Air, Md. and Shelly (Kevin) Spielberger of Chaska, 29 nephews and nieces, John’s siblings and spouses and “sister” Katie Nakagaki and her fun and lovable Teacher Squad.

She was preceded in death by her parents Lloyd and Dorothy Svoboda, in-laws Leonard and Delores Bastyr and niece Rachel Bastyr.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to St Mary’s School, Homestead Hospice Patient Care Fund or Mayo Cancer Research Fund. For more information or to leave a condolence message go to www.megercares.com.