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Submitted: 9/23/16 • Approved: 9/23/16 • Last Updated: 9/26/16 • R1155285-G0-S3
YEOMAN FIRST CLASS US Navy
World War II
October 3, 1912 - January 19, 2000
*Obituary
Francis Earl "Bunny" Sharrock, 87, was a familiar face in downtown Conway for more than half a century.
He took care of the community's dry-cleaning needs from about 1930, when as a young man he went to work for Southern Dry Cleaners, until 1996 when he sold the business he had purchased with Leo McClain in 1935. McClain eventually sold out his share of the business in 1959, leaving Sharrock as sole owner.
Sharrock died early Wednesday morning (Jan. 19, 2000) at Conway Regional Medical Center after a brief illness.
Sharrock was born Oct. 3, 1912, in Little Rock, a son of the late Walter S. and Frances Bell Jones Sharrock of Conway. He was preceded in death by a sister, Mary McHughes of Conway, and a brother, Raleigh Sharrock of Mobile, Ala. He is survived by his wife, Julie Tully Sharrock; two sons, Dr. Michael Sharrock of Virginia Beach, Va., and Richard Sharrock of Conway; a sister, Edna Grace Cox of Corpus Christi, Texas; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A graduate of Conway High School, Sharrock joined the Navy in 1942 and was stationed in New York City and England. He moved back to Conway in November 1945, shortly after his marriage to the former Julie Tully on Oct. 21, 1945, in Jackson Heights, N.Y. The marriage took place shortly after he returned from the European theater following four years of service in the Navy during World War II. According to Richard Sharrock, his father escorted ships across the English Channel at night during the war.
Sharrock met his future wife on Wall Street in Manhattan, where he was a Navy procurement petty officer first class before he was shipped overseas. Mrs. Sharrock, a daughter of Irish immigrants, was employed at the Federal Reserve Bank. In an interview in the Log Cabin Democrat in November 1996, prior to the closing of his business, Sharrock said he saw her "in the elevator with a woman I knew who worked in my building. ... I knew she was for me."
Sharrock quickly became immersed in community life in Conway. He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church and a charter member of the Conway Noon Lions Club, which was chartered on Aug. 6, 1946. He served as the club's first tail twister. He was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Jesse W. Grisham Post 2259, and was a member of the Arkansas National Guard for nine years. He supported his sons in their various activities, including 13 years of work with Little League baseball and 10 years of work with the Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce and the original Conway Country Club where he played golf. "He was an avid golfer," recalled his son, Michael Sharrock. "He once made a hole in one and was very proud of that achievement. He talked about it a lot.
"He also enjoyed Razorback football and Traveler baseball," Michael Sharrock continued. "His best friend was Joe McGee (former managing editor for the Log Cabin Democrat from 1923 to 1977) and they enjoyed going to ball games together."
His sons said their father was also a friend of the late Frank Robins Sr., publisher of the Log Cabin Democrat for many years. "He would send back stories from his war days for the paper to publish," Michael Sharrock pointed out.
Sharrock was even a "paper boy" during his youth, as were both of his sons. "He threw the town route back in the '20s," his sons recalled.
Sharrock was joined in the business in the early '70s by his son Richard after he attended the University of Central Arkansas and served a tour of duty with the Navy in Vietnam in 1971 and 1972. Son Michael would go on to become a naval commander, retiring with that rank; he is now in private dental practice in Virginia Beach. Michael and his wife, Pat, are the parents of the Sharrocks' three grandchildren, Margee Durand of Virginia Beach, Katie Sharrock, a student at James Madison University in Harrisburg, Va., and Christian Miller of Waukesha, Wis., who is the mother of the Sharrocks' great-grandchildren, Brian Kinney and Elizabeth Miller.
The Sharrock sons say their father worked "all the time, yet found time to visit with friends and others who were in need. He was a caretaker," they agreed. They also noted that his name appeared in the Log Cabin's "Yesterdays" column, "all the way from 10 years ago to 75 years ago."
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Burial will be at Oak Grove Cemetery by Roller-McNutt Funeral Home. Visitation and rosary will be 7 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Pallbearers will be Royce Hall, Bill Ledbetter, Dr. James H. Flanagin Jr., Dr. George T. "Tommy" Gray Jr., Steve Friedmann and Danny Friedmann.
Parents:
Walter Raleigh Sharrock (1880 - 1967)
Spouse:
Julia Catherine Tully Sharrock (1923 - 2012)
Contributed on 9/23/16 by hawkinsdonna
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Record #: 1155285