Sara Lynn Shepard

Sara Lynn Shepard (nee Pope) died at the age of 44 on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 in Houston, TX. The world has lost a loving, funny, creative, fiercely intelligent person.
Having already beat cancer once in 2022, Sara fell to stage 4 breast cancer after six difficult months of treatments and hospital visits. She spent her final days with family at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Services will be held at 1pm Friday, November 21 at Felix H. Morales Funeral Home in Houston, with visitation from 10am to 2pm.
Sara was born on February 8, 1981 in Norman, OK to parents Gary and Maria Pope. She was the eldest of three daughters, sister to Anna Young (Oklahoma City, OK) and Megan Broll (Kansas City, MO). Sara was preceded in death by her uncles Ron Killgore and Bob Karth on her mother's side, aunt Dess Pope and uncles Bob Morris, Ray Howard, and Bob Bullard on her father's side, and grandparents Blanche and R. O. Killgore and Ocus and Pauline Pope. Survivors of Sara's immediate family include her husband Josh and daughter Vivian, and their two dogs and cat.
Sara grew up with her family in Norman, Oklahoma where she was active in Girl Scouts and music throughout her childhood. Her Girl Scout Troop 216 excelled at outdoor skills, volunteerism, and mentorship, and Sara played oboe and flute in her teenage years before taking on bass guitar and drums in her early twenties. Sara was an excellent fabric artist and cross stitched, embroidered, knitted, and sewed. Her creative talents meshed well with those of her artistic husband's; together, they created elaborate costumes for cosplay events and Halloween, which was her favorite holiday.
Sara attended Austin College and graduated with a BA in Communications with an emphasis on Theater in 2003. She had a flair for storytelling, which she would further develop when working with Houston Public Library. She started out as a genealogy assistant, then worked her way through obtaining her MLS from the University of North Texas in 2010, becoming first a Youth Manager and then the Children's Services Coordinator. As Children's Coordinator she was integral in building and revitalizing system wide children's programming: setting standards for storytimes, creating the storytime and children's programming kit systems, encouraging early age STEM programming, embracing and advocating for Family Place, and bringing books to life with the annual Books Alive festival. During the COVID-19 Pandemic she led the pivot to virtual programming and even dressed up as a shark to read one of many stories recorded for Virtual Storytime. Her impact on children's services at HPL can still be felt.
Sara was active in the Texas Library Association and served on multiple panels to review and award "best of" books at their annual suggested reading lists. She was one of the founders of the Texas Youth Services Roundup which brought together youth librarians from across the state. Sara shared her love of books, libraries, and reading with everyone she met, most of all her daughter Vivian and nephews Walter and Henry Broll.
After over fourteen years with HPL, she began her role at Baker & Taylor as the Children's and Teen Services (CATS) manager for the western region, leading her to travel often to meet with libraries, attend conferences and conventions, and share her love of reading (and cats!) across the midwest.
Sara met Josh after moving to Houston shortly after college, starting out as roommates, then friends, then partners. Sara and Josh were delighted to become parents after a long wait in 2018, and Vivian's spirit and spark challenged their creativity in new and beautiful ways. Sara was a devoted, earnest, and kind mother, magnifying all her best qualities for the daughter she loved more than anything. Sara's loss will be felt by all who knew her, but most deeply by her husband Josh and daughter Vivian.