Sharon Lee (Smith) Shaw passed away quietly at her home in Roseville, California, on Thursday July 15, 2021 at the age of 85 years.
Sharon was born on April 10, 1936 in Springfield, Missouri to Troy Smith and Gertrude (Kirk) Smith. She attended public schools in the Springfield area and then her family moved to the California area where she went to school in Loomis, and graduated High School at Roseville High School in 1953. She continued her education through attending Sierra Junior college and received an AA Degree in 1956. During her childhood years she suffered two significant physical injuries; she had polio as a small child about 4 years old and then suffered the loss of an eye through an accident. She persevered through these injuries to go on and succeed in life.
Through a training program provided by the Department of Rehabilitation, she trained as a medical laboratory technician. Her first employment as a medical laboratory technician was with Sacramento County. Then, she worked 29 years for Kaiser Permanente, retiring as a Senior Laboratory Technician in 1996. She was active in a local church (Roseville Gospel Tabernacle) starting in 1948 as a 12-year-old and continuing until 1982. She worked in the Youth Department and later in the Sunday School Departments primary grades.
She married Rodney Shaw in 1960 and then had two daughters; Ronna and Rebecca. She and her husband left the Roseville church in 1982 to assist a small church group in Orangevale and relocated to Bridgeway Christian Church in 1998. Sharon’s life was one of grace and forgiveness to others. She had many friends, co-workers and children who loved her and she loved them. She married, she had wished for a large family (she came from a family five brothers and five sisters). However, she only had two daughters, but through the daughters and granddaughters she had 16 great grandchildren. She was able to hold each one of them and to love on them when they arrived. The joy of her life was to see some of them as often as she could, her love for children was boundless. Her greatest pleasure for the last three years has been when her grandson Casey could get her out of bed and into her wheelchair which allowed her to sit in the family room and watch her grandchildren play in our swimming pool. She fell in 2018 and injured her leg rendering her bedfast from that time until she passed. She never complained and rejoiced when people came to visit her. Her last day Wednesday was a joyful one for her, her sister Joan and two friends, Carol and Lorene visited her to sing songs and talk. That evening she ate a good meal and was sound asleep by 10:00, she left us the next morning. Given the extent of her childhood injuries, she lived a long life filled with adventure and excitement as the she served the Lord and watched for children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Troy and Gertrude Smith, a sister, Marva Stone, a brother, Charles (Sonny) Baker, on son-in-law Donald Courtright and a brother-in-law Thad Shelnutt.
She leaves to morn her husband of 61 ½ years; Rodney, her brothers, Troy (Bud) and Angela smith, George and Gayle Smith, Leonard Smith and Elmer Smith; her sisters, Joan Shelnutt, Alice and John Ynchausti, Mary and David Campbell. Her two daughters, Ronna and Dennis Davis, and Rebecca Courtright, grandchildren, Tom and Amanda Davis, Tim and Courtney Davis and Shawna and Greg Beam, Casey and Crystal Courtright, Cody and Suzie Courtright, Shara and Justin Hall and sixteen great grandchildren.
Funeral Services were held on Monday, July 26, 2021 in Roseville, California. A Memorial Service will be held at 1:00 PM, Saturday, July 31, 2021 at Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary of Russell, Kansas. A private burial will be held at Fairport Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 9:00 AM to Service Time, Saturday at the Mortuary. Condolences may be sent to Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary, who is in charge of these arrangements.