Ilse Anna Frieda Sheats died peacefully on April 12, 2017 at Loudoun Nursing and Rehab in Leesburg, Virginia. She is predeceased by her husband, Jackson Sheats. She is survived by her children, Anna Askari and David Sheats, her granddaughter, Sonya Sheats, and two great-grandchildren.

She was born in Hamburg, Germany on April 30, 1929 to Charlotte Bohse Henning and Franz Henning. She trained as a milliner and immigrated to the United States in 1950. She lived and worked in Chicago, Illinois, where she studied voice and developed a love of opera. In 1964 she moved with her family to Germany, and worked as a prompter at the City Theater of Koblenz and later as a receptionist at the Canadian Embassy in Bonn. From 1973 she lived in Winchester, Virginia with her husband, and they moved to Leesburg in 2005.

Family will receive friends on Tuesday, April, 18, 2017 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm at Colonial Funeral Home of Leesburg, 201 Edwards Ferry Rd, NE, Leesburg, VA  20176 where a service will begin at 12:00 pm.  Interment to follow at Ivy Hill Cemetery, Upperville, VA.