Sharon Alice Pope was born on November 19, 1956 to Alice and Elwood Pope in Trenton, New Jersey (she’d pick up the “Anne” and the “Moore” later in life). Her mom was one of five children born to an Irish mother and Italian father, so Sharon’s early life was populated with numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. When she was twelve, the family moved two thousand miles south to McAllen, Texas. There, her father, an artist and ardent believer in the importance of health, owned a small patch of land and grew an organic citrus orchard. Four years after arriving in Texas, Elwood passed away and Sharon would spend the rest of her life following in his footsteps. In high school, teenage Shar (who was crowned the “Blue Jean Queen” in a local competition) often snuck through a hole in the fence on the U.S.-Mexico border to drink lemonade and the dance night away at the Mexican discotecas. She had two horses — Magada and April Dawn — and would ride them through the fields after she got home from school. In the summers, she worked at local businesses and took dips in the irrigation ditches to cool off.

 

Young for her grade, she left for college at seventeen. She spent her first year as a graphic arts major at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, eventually transferring to Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Jobs at Long John Silver’s, Albertson’s, and the Commons Halls on the A&M campus helped her pay her way through school. One job in particular would change her life. Shortly after joining the catering crew at 3C Barbecue, she met Steven B. Moore, an Aggie student from Dallas getting an MBA. After a rocky first-introduction, he teased his way into her heart. Two years and one nearly-flunked graduate degree later, he proposed to her on New Year’s Eve as they got ready to leave for a party (she was taking out her rollers). Steve and Sharon married in Memphis, Tennessee on July 4, 1981. The church boasted six wedding guests and leftover flowers from the wedding the day before, but it was perfect. 

 

Their adventure began. Their apartment in Memphis would be the first of seventeen homes they’d share together across four states and two countries. She used her arts and smarts to begin a career in advertising, working in darkrooms and eventually becoming an art director. On the side, she started her own handmade greeting card company, Cold Hands. They traveled to Europe, both of their first times leaving the country (in Germany, she got so mad at him over a navigation dispute that she got out of the car and walked away! In a foreign country! With no cell phone!). When they designed and built a home together in San Antonio (their first and last custom residence), she proved that her artistic ability extended beyond the canvas and added unofficial interior designer to her resume. In the mid-eighties Steve took a job at Coca-Cola. They bought a home just outside of down-town Atlanta and started trying for a family.

 

In 1991, these two lean, tan, sandy-blondes welcomed a chubby, lily-white, red-headed baby girl to the family (Erin). And Sharon, who was great at pretty much everything she tried her hand at, found the thing she was very best at. A couple of years later, they welcomed a second daughter (Sam). After two more years and a move across the pond came the twins (Dillon & McLean), but even four-under-four couldn’t slow Sharon down. The next chapter of life was chaotic and wonderful, full of diapers and naps and giggles and lullabies. The whole brood shipped back from London in 1995 and spent a few years moving between Charlotte and Atlanta, making numerous lifelong friends and countless visits to The Varsity. On their second move to Charlotte, while searching for their next (and what they foolishly thought might be their final) home, Sharon took a liking to a big, white house that, alas, wasn’t on the market. Rather than accept defeat, she knocked on the door to inquire if the owner might, just might, be interested in selling… Thus began six long, lovely years at 2132 Dilworth Road East. During this pause in their nomadic existence, Sharon pulled numerous “Sharons”. Her interior design work was featured twice in Southern Living Magazine. She painted several gigantic, beautiful murals illustrating Bible stories on the walls of her children’s school. She threw countless epic parties (of the dance, birthday, murder-mystery, and dinner varieties), made epic breakfasts, and loved her kids more fiercely than anyone has a right to be loved. They were charmed years, and she often said they were the happiest of her life. 

 

The family hit the road yet again in 2005 when Steve accepted a job at Texas A&M University, his alma mater. Despite Sharon’s reluctance to leave Charlotte, she once again honed in on a house that wasn’t for sale and ended up with the keys. In College Station, a whole new slew of people got the opportunity to become Sharon-fans. The Moore house was the primary hangout for many of her children’s friends, not because of the delicious food or antics she was always whipping up (though those were undeniable perks), but because of the warm, welcoming spirit she fostered. For the next decade, she navigated the ups and downs of her children’s tweens and teens whilst designing and overseeing the renovation of their historic Tudor and, after years of study, becoming a naturopathic doctor. Being back in Texas also meant more quality time and holidays with her mother, brother, and brother's family, which she treasured. As each of her kids left for college, her signature white Mini Cooper, Marge (named after her aunt, because all of Sharon’s cars had names), was put to work. Out of sight was not out of mind for Sharon, so she could often be found driving the distances between the four kids, bringing them anything she thought they might need (and occasionally things they didn’t).

 

In 2015, the empty nesters flew the coop. First, they were off to Dallas where they lived in a downtown loft reminiscent of their first apartment together in Memphis. 1122 Jackson #713 became yet another canvas for Sharon’s creativity as she painted, purchased (thank you Round Top, Texas for all the antiques) and designed a loft space that could accommodate her family (thanks to three secret sleeping places). She loved, loved, loved watching the world go by from her perch on the 7th floor and found she could keep up with the news by reading the light display on the Omni Hotel’s exterior each morning (ha). She genuinely cared about her community, always carrying cash on her walks downtown in case she met someone who looked like they could use it. But before too long, the Steve-and-Sharon train was once again leaving the station. They headed out west to their first humidity-free locale (where Sharon joked that her hair looked better, but her skin looked worse). In Tucson, she acquired new skills (throwing pottery), new pastimes (tennis, hiking, especially Tumamoc Hill), and a new favorite ritual: driving out to watch the sunset at Gate’s Pass with wine and cheese. However, the most significant event of her life during these years did not take place in Tucson, but in Spain. In 2019, she and Sam spent five weeks walking 500 miles on the Camino Trail. It was inspiring, grueling, beautiful, hot, and rainy almost in equal proportion. But most of all, it was pure Sharon — all that is good and true in life.

 

The last four years were full of big moments and she poured herself into each of them. All three of her daughters got married and had babies in quick succession — a heavy, joyful load for a mama — and “Shanaynay” (her grandma name of choice) went above and beyond to help ease their passages into motherhood. When the pandemic hit, it became clear that Tucson was further away than she wanted to be from her kids and grandkids, so she and Steve began to look for a home in the Dallas area where they could someday retire. In fall 2021, they purchased a beautiful, blue bungalow close to historic downtown McKinney (and, in a surprising twist, their seventeenth home already looked just like her — no Sharonization required). In the short time she lived there, she filled the house with joy. She held a baby shower, hosted her signature Thanksgiving feast, celebrated birthdays and graduations, and made a point of befriending all of her new neighbors. Many days, she woke to watch the sunrise and later, as the sun set, strolled into town with Steve for dinner on the square.

 

In May, Sharon was suddenly confronted with symptoms of an aggressive cancer that would eventually impact her liver, kidneys and heart. Throughout this increasingly difficult time, she was as Sharon as she could be: weeding in the yard when she could, making homemade chicken noodle soup, and singing songs with her kids. In the last weeks of her life, she was surrounded by the love of her family. Steve, her children, her children-in-law, and grandchildren did everything they could to acknowledge and repay the immense gifts she’d given them (as if that were possible).

 

Sharon left us at 7:36 am on Thursday, June 16, 2022. She was an artist. A prankster. A seeker. A healer. She was ours, and she was entirely her own. She will be sorely missed by her husband Steve, daughter Erin Gilbert and husband Vince Gilbert, daughter Sam Moore and husband Sam Phinney, son Dillon Moore and partner Maddie Ross, daughter McLean Morrow and husband Jonathan Morrow; grandchildren Eliza Gilbert, Ruby Morrow, and Cooper Phinney; brother Greg Pope, wife Lisa Pope, and their children; brother-in-law Tim Moore and wife LeAnn Moore; and, we know, by all who knew her.

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