Mary Jeanne Brooks Sharp was born in Abilene, Texas to Doyle Tant Brooks and Azel Edith Baten Brooks in 1928. She graduated from George Washington High School in 1945 in New York City while spending a year studying at the Juilliard School of Music. She returned to Texas and enrolled at Southern Methodist University in the Fall of 1945, majoring in vocal performance and minoring in piano.
She graduated from SMU in 1949 with a Bachelors of Art degree in music and went on to become an instructor of Music and English at Panola Junior College, in Carthage Texas. She married Thomas Harris Sharp in 1950 and they moved to Dallas in 1952. Charlotte was born in 1955 and John was born in 1958.
Mary Jeanne became a teacher in the Dallas Independent School district in 1972 where she taught music to second, third and fourth graders at Colonial Elementary School. For her last year at Colonial she was given the responsibility of teaching a class of first graders. She finished her teaching career at Preston Hollow Elementary School where she taught remedial math to fourth, fifth and sixth graders and later regular math to the same age group.
Mary Jeanne enjoyed taking her student to city-wide math contests, where many of them won their divisions. While Mary Jeanne was teaching full-time, she finished her Master’s degree in education at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M at Commerce). After her retirement in mid-1980s, Mary Jeanne worked as a volunteer for several organizations and became the bookkeeper for her family’s real estate business.
Mary Jeanne was very involved in the music activates of Highland Baptist Church. She frequently sang solos for church services and when the church choir performed oratorios, she sang lead soprano roles. She also led children’s choir and taught Vacation Bible School.
Later when the family attended First Baptist Church of Dallas, she and her husband were active in the mission of Texas Baptist Men and traveled to many places in the U.S. and Canada, constructing buildings for mission outreaches and holding Vacation Bible School for local children. Mary Jeanne Sharp was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas Harris Sharp, her parents, and two brothers, Doyle T. Brooks, Jr. and Billy Frank Brooks. She is survived by one daughter, Charlotte Lightner and her husband Louis (Skip) of Richardson; one son, John Sharp and his wife Lisa of Richardson; three grandchildren, Harrison Sharp, Anne Lightner, and Benjamin Sharp.
She is also survived by in-laws, Ruth Brooks of Dallas, Ida Nell Sharp of De Berry, Evelyn Sharp of Carthage, Reuben Milton of Sherman and Elizabeth Robinson of Flower Mound; and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends at the Forum. Services are currently pending.
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