Phil Sherlock, 51, publisher of the Farnam Free Press the past year, died May 23, 1981, at the hospital in Gothenburg.

Sherlock, who had announced the week before he was discontinuing publication of the Free Press, was stricken at his home. The Farnam Rescue Squad was called and worked to save him while taking him to the hospital.

He was born Oct. 24, 1929, in St. Francis, Kans. He recently became associated with Century 21 Realty in Lexington.

Survivors include his wife, Barbara; two daughters, Denise Brooks of Dallas, Tex., and Janelle Sherlock of St. Louis; one brother, Fred of St. Francis; one sister, Mrs. Frank (Eleanor) Magley of Longmont, Colo.; and his stepmother, Mrs. Nelle Sherlock of Goodland, Kans.

Services were Tuesday morning in the McVay Memorial Chapel in Gothenburg with Rev. Harold Johnson officiating. Burial was in the cemetery at St. Francis.