Beloved Maypearl resident, Sondra Lou Ledbetter, 83, passed away peacefully at her home on Friday morning, February 9, 2024, surrounded by her children. Sondra was born on July 23, 1940, to George C. Creach and Mildred Elizabeth Davis in Fort Worth, Texas. Sondra, the oldest of her five siblings, was a tremendous help to her mother with the younger children. While Sondra was a student at Kennedale Junior High School, she learned how to sew. Sewing became much more than a hobby to her, as she soon began making not only her clothes, but her siblings' clothes, as well. Sondra would go on to become an "expert" seamstress through her lifetime;  sewing for her daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughters. It was not unheard of for her to stay up all night sewing an outfit for the next day. Then get up and go to work!

While attending Kennedale Church of Christ as a young teenager, Sondra met the handsome dark-haired Jimmy Lovell Ledbetter. From their first meeting, Jimmy and Sondra were an inseparable item. Finally, on June 22, 1957, unwilling to wait the extra year for Sondra to graduate from high school, the couple eloped to Oklahoma! After her senior school year started, Jimmy drove his new bride to school every morning. Her friends, laughingly and teasingly, called her new husband her "bodyguard." Sondra graduated from Kennedale High School in 1958.

In 1968, after residing in the Fort Worth area for eleven years, Sondra and Jimmy moved their young family, which then included three sons, to Maypearl, Texas. The following year, she and Jimmy finally welcomed a baby daughter, making their family of six complete. Upon moving to town, the Ledbetter family became members of the Maypearl Church of Christ. Here they met and made life-long friends Jim and Gail Evans, Joyce Harris and the late Roy Harris, Cene Hinde and the late Don Hinde. Through their fifty-year plus friendship, the "gang" enjoyed endless hours of laughter, fellowship, cards, and dominoes.

Besides family, friends, and sewing, Sondra loved peppermint patties, iced tea, hot baths, afternoon naps, and traveling. Sondra, who was happiest on the go, was always ready to lunch out with her "girls," which would be followed by trips to the nail salon for pedicures. Another one of Sondra's main interests was Christmas. She thoroughly enjoyed decorating the entire house with Christmas cheer and baking holiday favorites for family and friends to enjoy. Sondra's chocolate fudge, sausage balls, and Aunt Sallie's chocolate cookies were among her specialties. Every autumn she would spend weeks decorating the house, making sure it was Christmas-ready for the "gang's" annual Christmas party. Christmas was by far Sondra's favorite time of the year.

Sondra worked raising her family until 1978, when she took a job with the Maypearl Independent School District as a teacher's aid in the special education department. She held this position until retiring in 1998. During her twenty years with the district, it is impossible to measure how many lives Mrs. Ledbetter touched. Dressing beautifully and being "put together," which always included matching shoes and a matching purse, was her signature look. And, her perfect hair came from a decades-old standing appointment every Friday after school at the beauty shop.

After Sondra's retirement, she and Jimmy were able to indulge their joint love for travel. Having traveled the country from coast to coast by car (and she has the bells to prove it!), the pair discovered cruise ships and fell in love with this mode of travel. Along with their annual trip to Branson, Missouri (a favorite destination place for well over thirty years), cruises became part of their annual travel plans. Their most adventurous cruise was an Alaskan cruise in 2000. Of course, all travel plans were contingent on whether one of the grandkids or great-grandkids had a sporting event. If someone did, all travel plans would cease. Sondra and Jimmy loved watching the kiddos compete in their various sports. Through all of their travel destinations, Sondra would tell you the place that made her happiest was their farm in Maypearl with Jimmy. Wherever they were in the world, as long as she and Jimmy were together, they were "at home."

Sondra is survived by sons Kenneth Lovell Ledbetter and wife Pinky; Karl Ray Ledbetter; Kirk Lee Ledbetter; daughter Kristi Ledbetter Holley and husband Kyle; grandsons Dwayne Lovell Ledbetter and wife Heather (Ryleigh Baggerly and husband Brett, Steelie, and Harper); Brandon Ray Ledbetter and wife Sabrina (Bryan, Stormy, Olyve, nad Brandon); Alan Ray Ledbetter; Kolton Lee Holley (Kolbi); Bryton Lane Ledbetter (Kami and Aurora); Kort Thomas Holley; granddaughters Emily Ledbetter Isaguirre and Karson Olivia Holley; great-great grandson Bennett Baggerly; younger brothers George C. Creach and Harold Ray Creach; baby sister Cheryl Creach Abbott; sisters-in-law Rhonda Creach, Sharon Creach and Melva Ledbetter Jones and husband Larry; and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins. Sondra was preceded in death by her sweetheart of 63 years Jimmy Lovell Ledbetter, parents, younger brother Harry Creach, and brother-in-law William Abbott.

Services will be held Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at Waxahachie Funeral Home. Visitation will begin at 10:00, with the funeral following at 11:00. Interment at Ozro Cemetery immediately following the service. Pall bearers are Garrett David, Steve Evans, Ricardo Rameriz, Johnny White, Daniel Williams, and Kerry Wilson. Honorary pallbearer is Jim Evans.