Sharon Bullard Brock

“Sometimes you have to just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” Such was the motto of our mother, Sharon Leigh (Bullard) Brock who passed away on July 17^th, 2022 at 12:30 pm. She was nine days shy of her 77^th birthday.

Sharon was born in Memphis, TN to Shirley Hollowell Kirkland. She never knew her father, and spent most of her early years growing up on the family farm with her maternal grandfather and mother, learning homesteading and playing with her beloved pet. Sharon’s love of animals spanned her entire life, and she gave shelter and food to many a wandering furry friend. Her biological children grew up with “brothers” and “sisters” named Dutchess and Benjamin, Chompa and Ted, Buddy and Bear, Chance and Blaster, Kita and Blue and Levi and Fancy, just to name a few. Her home was always full of wagging tails and puppy breath and kibble.

From a young age, Sharon always wanted a big family. Sadly, she never knew many members of her family, so she created her own. From two separate marriages, Sharon had two children, Daniel Lee Cox and Melissa Renee McAbee Zaher (Neal). Her family grew more with two granddaughters, Ara Clare and Abbott Hollowell Zaher. When asked what they wanted to say about their Nana, they said “she was the greatest Nana of all time, who was kind and playful”. Sharon loved her children and her granddaughters more than anything.

She loved sports and she was always quick to strike up a conversation with you about the latest NASCAR race winner or who did this jump in the National Ice-Skating competition or who won the last match in Wimbledon or how Tiger Woods did in the PGA tour. Sharon loved Perry Mason and Columbo and Matlock. If she wasn’t engrossed in the latest episode of Law and Order, you’d find her completing a crossword, a word find or a puzzle. She aspired to be a lawyer or an archaeologist - Egypt fascinated her.

Sharon spent over 30 years of her career helping to build and leading the helm of Color Applications, a painting company that colors the façades of most of the major hotel brands you see across the United States. She was smart, hardworking, independent, loyal (and stubborn), and despite many of the mud pits life threw in her way, she was tough and always pulled herself up by those proverbial bootstraps and kept on truckin’. She applied that philosophy to every aspect of her life.

Sharon was forced into retirement in 2012 due to end-stage COPD and was no longer able to continue working. She fought hard for the past ten years of her life, defying the three-month prognosis doctors had forecasted. She was a sweet soul with a big heart and truck driver attitude. Keep on truckin’, mom. We’ll see you at the next stop.

In lieu of flowers and in honor of Sharon’s memory, please make a donation to the American Lung Association: https://bit.ly/ForSharleigh