- Date: 15 March 1954
- Written at: Sacramento, California
- Stationery: Illuminated resolution, California State Assembly
- From: Assembly, California Legislature
- To: Mrs. Ruby Sharmer
- Condition: Complete — framed
Each page of the original is shown beside its transcription. Click a page to enlarge it.
RESOLUTION
Assembly, California Legislature, 1954 Regular Session
Resolution
Relative to the passing of Joseph Sharmer
By Honorable George A. Clarke of the Thirty-first District
WHEREAS, The Members of this Assembly have learned with profound regret of the passing of Joseph Sharmer in Santa Cruz, at the youthful age of 56; and
WHEREAS, Joseph Sharmer was born in Sydney, Nebraska, and reared in Reedley, California. After graduating from the public schools, he entered the canning and fruit processing business, and later engaged in the growing and processing of figs; and
WHEREAS, In 1948, Mr. Sharmer was elected supervisor from his district for a four-year term after leading an extensive grand jury investigation of county government the year before; and
WHEREAS, Ever active in community affairs, he was Past President of the Merced-Mariposa Shrine Club, Past President of the Merced Rotary Club and former Chairman of the Merced County Chapter of the American Red Cross; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Members of this Assembly extend their heartfelt sympathies to the family of Joseph Sharmer; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly be hereby directed to transmit suitably prepared copies of this resolution to Mrs. Ruby Sharmer, widow of Joseph Sharmer, and to Mrs. Myron Sager and Mrs. Catherine Kratz, his sisters.
House Resolution No. 22 read, and adopted unanimously, March 15, 1954.
Signed: James W. Silliman, Speaker of the Assembly
Attest: Arthur A. Ohnimus, Chief Clerk of the Assembly
Notes & context
This framed copy is the “illuminated copy” mentioned in the Chief Clerk’s letter of 30 March 1954. It is the best short biography of Joseph Sharmer in the collection: born in Nebraska (the resolution spells it “Sydney”; the town is Sidney), raised in Reedley, a career in canning and fruit processing (the work behind the 1937 sales trip), later a fig grower, then Merced County Supervisor from 1948.
His sisters in 1954. Of Joe’s three older sisters, two were still living: “Mrs. Myron Sager,” very likely his eldest sister Laura, the family’s Aunt Larry of San Francisco, and “Mrs. Catherine Kratz,” his sister Kathryn Kratz of Sidney, Nebraska (the resolution spells her name with a C). Dodie had died in 1943.
