- Date: Sunday, 28 February 1954
- Written at: Santa Cruz, California
- Stationery: Clipping from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, with a handwritten note
- About: Joseph “Joe” Sharmer
- Condition: Complete article; the radio listings beside it are cut off
The original is shown beside its transcription. Click it to enlarge.
CLIPPING
Written at the top: “Error, we never lived in or moved to Merced.” (An arrow points to the last line of the third paragraph.)
Sunday, February 28, 1954
Services Held For Joseph Sharmer
Private services for Joseph Sharmer, who suffered a fatal heart attack while he was driving in downtown Santa Cruz Friday, will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in White’s chapel. Santa Cruz lodge 83, F&AM, will officiate.
Sharmer, 56, served on the Merced county board of supervisors for a number of years before he retired and moved to Santa Cruz a year and a half ago. His home was at 902 Walnut avenue.
Born in Sidney, Nebraska, Sharmer was reared and educated in Reedley schools. He moved to Planada in 1938. A cannery superintendent, he met and married Ruby E. Wilson there in 1938, before the couple moved to Merced.
Before his retirement he was one of the leaders in construction of the Merced general hospital.
He is survived by his widow and three children, Joseph, Jay Myron and Laurel Ann Sharmer, all of Santa Cruz; two sisters, Mrs. Earl Kratz of Sidney, Nebraska, and Mrs. Myron Sager of San Francisco.
He was a member of Reedley lodge 304, F&AM; chapter 12, Royal Arch Masons of Merced; Tehran temple of the Shrine of Fresno; Consistory of Scottish Rite of Fresno; and past president of the Merced Rotary club.
Notes & context
The date he died. The paper came out on Sunday, 28 February 1954, and says Joe died “Friday”: 26 February 1954. The Merced County Board of Supervisors’ resolution a few days later gives the 27th, a day late (A Friend Whose Memory Will Always Dwell with Us).
“Error, we never lived in or moved to Merced.” Someone in the family corrected the paper in ink, with an arrow to the words “before the couple moved to Merced.” Their home in Merced County was in Planada, a few miles east of the town of Merced, not in Merced itself.
A heart attack at 56. He was driving in downtown Santa Cruz when it happened. The funeral was private, at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 March, in White’s chapel, with Santa Cruz Masonic Lodge No. 83 officiating. That same day the Board of Supervisors in Merced adopted its resolution in his memory.
“A year and a half ago.” By the paper’s reckoning the family moved to 902 Walnut Avenue, Santa Cruz, in about the autumn of 1952, after his term as supervisor ended.
The family. His three children, Joseph, Jay and Laurel, were living with Ruby in Santa Cruz. His surviving sisters were Kathryn (“Mrs. Earl Kratz”) of Sidney, Nebraska, and Laura, the family’s Aunt Larry (“Mrs. Myron Sager”), of San Francisco.
The hospital. “One of the leaders in construction of the Merced general hospital”: as supervisor he secured the funding for the county hospital, where his name is on the plaque (see People).
A high-ranking Mason. Joe was made a Mason in Reedley Lodge No. 304 and went on through the higher bodies of Freemasonry: the Royal Arch Masons (Chapter 12, Merced), the Scottish Rite Consistory in Fresno, whose members hold the 32nd degree, and Tehran Temple of the Shrine in Fresno, which in those years admitted only 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Masons or Knights Templar. He was also a past president of the Merced Rotary Club. The Santa Cruz Masonic lodge conducted his funeral.
