Jo Ann Sharbrough

Published 7:52 pm Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Ann was born Oct. 14, 1958, in Vicksburg to Joan Bailey and Dr. Richmond F. Sharbrough. She grew up in Vicksburg and attended the public schools and later St. Aloysius. She was a member of the Vicksburg Swim Team and won the backstroke State championship for her school in her age group.

She was very personable and loved everyone. She liked to make rounds at the hospital with her Dad, where she became the ‘pet’ of the Sisters of Mercy. She also enjoyed hunting with her daddy and her granddaddy at the family Quail Hills Plantation in Coffeeville.

After graduation, she attended college in Colorado, Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi. While at Southern, she majored in Environmental Science and chaired ‘Earth Day’ festivities in Hattiesburg. At that time, Bob Kotitzky of Jackson asked her to come to Jackson and help him with a program, where she went to several public schools and took sixth graders and showed them how to plant a vegetable garden at their school. She then changed her major to Horticulture and graduated with a bachelors degree at Mississippi State, where she was in charge of Interior Scaping, (taking care of all indoor plants on campus.) After graduation, she was offered a position with a national nursery in Portland, Ore., and worked there for several years until she visited with friends in Colorado and decided that this was a place she would love. So, she moved to Boulder. Since Boulder is flat and she loved the mountains, she moved up to the top of Boulder Pass to Nederland and soon became the town clerk, where she was in charge of all festivities, which suited her perfectly. Years later, she became the secretary at the Public Defenders Office in Boulder, where she unfortunately had a severe back injury that plagued her the rest of her life.

Ann loved life and had many fun times with her many friends who will miss her laugh and her happy times.

She leaves her mother, Joan Bailey of Vicksburg and two sisters, Susan Sharbrough Watson of Birmingham, Ala. and Jacquelyn Bailey Sharbrough of Houston, Texas. She also leaves many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins who adored her.

She was predeceased by two weeks by her father, Dr. Richmond Sharbrough of Vicksburg.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Crawford Street United Methodist Church, Vicksburg, MS or to Houston Pets Alive (a no-kill pet rescue group in Houston,TX). P.O. Box 36128, Houston, TX 77326 or www.HoustonPetsAlive.org.