653461684.jpg &&& One day while out driving, Lonnie Sharelle McMenamy saw a man beating his son in a ditch. Standing just a couple of inches over 5 feet, Ms. McMenamy got out of her car and got between the man and his son. She told the man he wasn’t going to hit the boy anymore. "She got the man to quit and took the boy to his grandma’s," said her daughter Donetta Davenport. Ms. McMenamy was caring, loving and unwilling to back down. She is described by family members as a simple, fun-loving homemaker and mother, someone who never met a stranger."I think when somebody gives up their personal ambitions to stop and just raise a family, I think that’s probably what she was most passionate about," Davenport said.Ms. McMenamy, of Burleson, died Tuesday from complications of diabetes, family members said.From birth she faced long odds. She weighed little more than 2 pounds, and the doctor, who delivered her at home, told her mother he would return if she survived the night. She was so tiny she was fed with an eyedropper. Davenport said one of her "silly" memories was the times her mother spent drawing pictures of smiling faces with corkscrew smiles and stars for eyes."I just remember sitting down and laughing at the different ones she’d draw," Davenport said.Ms. McMenamy’s interests ranged from jewelry and gambling to Elvis and arts and crafts."She could turn anything into something beautiful," her daughter Nanette Ballard said.A specialty was her hand-sewn dolls with hand-painted faces, which she sold in a sideline business called Sharelle’s Little Texans. If she was touched by a family’s request for a doll, for a sick child for instance, she would give a doll away.Later in life, she enjoyed spending time with friends at the local senior citizen center, where she could play a ruthless hand of cards. She had an easy way of making friends, Ballard said."She never knew a stranger," she said. "She would stop and talk to anybody. She could always find a friend in anyone."Her daughters always could count on her to be a confidante. "She would help us get through whatever it was," Davenport said.Not too long ago, Ms. McMenamy’s sister, Mary Kay Standard, sat with her in the hospital. "I didn’t realize how much I loved her until this happened," Standard said. All they could do was hold hands and tell each other "I love you."Other survivors include her husband of about 40 years, Don McMenamy; and son, Curtis McMenamy. Funeral 1:30 p.m. today, Greenwood Chapel, Fort Worth