Sharon Elizabeth Fifer was born on October 3, 1940, in San Mateo, to E.W. “Willy” Fifer and Marjorie Mason Fifer and was raised in the Scott Valley area outside Yreka. She passed away in Arcata on February 16, 2024. When Sharon was three years old, she was diagnosed with polio and spent her life working through those challenges. Sharon first married Johnny Moore and had two children, William “Bill” Moore and Tina Moore. She was next married to Ronald Swihart and had son Ron Swihart Jr. and in 1967 she married her husband of 57 years, George “Buzzy” Peterson. Sharon worked at Granada Care Home in the 1980’s and then accepted a position at Glen Paul School in Eureka as a teacher’s aide until her retirement. She always spoke fondly of her time there, the students she had and the friendships she made.

As a child, Sharon lived on the farm and raised many animals, participating in 4-H and FFA. She also enjoyed camping, going on hunts for deer and elk out of state with her parents as a child and young adult. Sharon loved to travel and she and Buzzy would take annual trips to Reno where they became regulars at Fitzgerald’s. Frequently they would hook up the trailer and head for the mountains and enjoy life and the quiet of the Trinity Mountain wilderness or to Brookings for the kite festival. When they purchased land in Trinity Pines, it became a family gathering place and Sharon enjoyed having her family close, swimming, playing, and enjoying food and fun around the campfire. She enjoyed growing and arranging flowers and took on the greenhouse at Glen Paul as a special project, teaching the children how to care for the flowers. She also loved frogs and any garden she had or worked in was always full of ceramic frogs of every size. She was an avid NASCAR fan and going to Las Vegas with Bill and Tina was one of her greatest thrills and until the end, she asked them when they could take her again.

In the past decade, her mobility worsened and Sharon took to riding a motorized scooter around McKinleyville, walking the dogs alongside as they traversed the Hammond Trail. You would always see her with a black Scottish Terrier, her favorite breed. This led to meeting several other people on scooters from her neighborhood (her posse) and they formed a group, going for daily rides to enjoy the outdoors.

Sharon is predeceased by parents Willy and Marge and her brother William (Bill) Willis Fifer as well as her brother-in-law John Coonrod and sister-in-law Joyce Peterson Coonrod in Oregon.

Sharon is survived by her husband Buzzy, her children Bill (Lynn) Moore, Tina (Larry) Wood and Ron (Paula) Swihart, grandchildren Nicole Moore, Kaitlyn Swihart, Alison Wood, Jory Wood, Ethan (Heidi) Swihart and Mason Wood and by great-grandson Cole Taylor, her sister-in-law Bonnie Fifer and her sister-in-law Karen (Al) Clark.

Sharon also leaved behind many friends and coworkers too numerous to name but a few who have become very special to her include Tim, Kammy, Darlene and the Mickey Jones family. She also leaves behind many cousins back in Scott Valley.

A celebration of Sharon’s life is being planned with a private family interment at the Fort Jones cemetery at a later date where she will be laid to rest with her parents and brother in the family plot.