Sharon Ferrians-Talbott

Sharon Ferrians-Talbott died on August 24, 2020, in Pasco, Washington, of natural causes. She was 78 years old.

Sharon was born on June 23, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, to Lyvonne and Lyle Ferrians. She grew up in Burbank, WA, with 3 younger brothers, Gary, Melvin, and Bobby, who all died in their teens of muscular dystrophy. She was a cheerleader, a basketball player, and valedictorian of Columbia Burbank High School class of 1960. That same year she was crowned the first Miss Tri-Cities.

Sharon loved to travel. When she was in her 20s, she ventured to Europe with one of her lifelong best friends, Sally Mitchell, who she met while working at Hanford. In 1969 she worked as a cook on a freighter that traveled from Hawai’i to Fiji. On that voyage the boat stopped at an Air Force base where the crew, including Sharon, was able to talk via radio to the astronauts who were on the first moon mission.

She was a dedicated, loving mother who had her first and only daughter at age 36. As a single mother, she worked as a waitress while earning her Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Whitman College. Her career in elementary education spanned 20 years.

If you had to describe her personality in one word, it would be “effervescent.”

She is survived by her husband, John Talbott, and her daughter, Chelsea Ackerman. John and Sharon met late in life, and though they only enjoyed a short time together, their love was deep and sustaining.

She will be missed every day by countless beloved friends and relatives, including Sharon Livermore and family, Julia Topp-Reese, Edwynna Swanson, Janice Ling, Judy Baston, Lennie Kruger, Mary Jane Morris, LaDona and the Madison family, and Ferrians cousins including Judy Shaw and Jeri Rodinsky, and many many more.

A celebration of life service will be held on Friday, September 11, 2pm at Riverview Heights Cemetery, 1200 S Olympia St, Kennewick, WA 99337.

Memorial gifts may be made to Muscular Dystrophy Association, earmarked for kids MDA summer camp, or to Kadlec Neurological Resource Center.