Harlan Dale Sharp
Memorial service at 1 p.m. Friday, June 22, at Roller-Christeson Funeral Home, with time of visitation immediately following.
Harlan Dale Sharp passed away on Monday, June 18 (2018) from injuries sustained in a truck accident caused by heart failure.
He was born on Sept. 10, 1942, in the White Oak community near Bergman. His parents were Gabriel “Gabe” Bailey Sharp and Bessie Ivon Vanzant Sharp.
Harlan loved to be doing something, whether it was working on his farm tractors, working with his cattle, delivering containers or visiting with friends. He enjoyed elk hunting in Colorado for many years. He was plowing with a farm tractor by the time he was eight. When Harlan was 12, his father volunteered him to drive a 90 year old man to Fort Smith. The man paid for Harlan’s bus ticket home. When he was 14, his dad was in the hospital. Gabe called a county official and told him his son needed his driver’s license. Harlan’s sister was able to go in with him while he took the test, and she had the manual, so they looked up the answers he didn’t know.
He graduated from Bergman High School in 1960. He worked in Grants, New Mexico, as a loader operator for the Homestake-Sapien Uranium Mines during the summer of 1959 and after graduation until December 1960.
He married Nancy Lee Wilson Sharp, daughter of John and Irene Payne Wilson, on March 31, 1961. In January of 1962, they moved to Yakima, Washington, where Harlan worked for Chuck Worthen and Paul Berndt on their orchards, remaining friends with them through the years. Harlan and Nancy attended Yakima Business College at night. Harlan was also saved and baptized while in Washington.
After returning to Arkansas near the end of 1966, Harlan managed a registered Black Angus ranch in Searcy County. In 1969, he went to work at Garrison Motor Freight. After it sold, he drove a truck for Chief Freight Lines out of Tulsa for a few months. Then he and Harold Hicks started Hicks and Sharp Trucking, Inc. Harlan later sold his share of the business. He began driving for Walmart in 1987, where he was known to other drivers as Scooby Doo, retiring in 2007. In 1994 Harlan and Nancy started Dale’s Storage Trailer Rental and Sales, Inc. Harlan served as a deacon at First Assembly of God Church for many years. He also went on several mission trips to Indian Reservations in Arizona.
Harlan was a good mechanic and could do just about anything. He never met a stranger and was always willing to offer a helping hand. Harlan was a very kind, considerate and loving husband, father and grandfather, a true provider and protector for his family.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nancy Lee Wilson Sharp; daughters Tina McCain (Bryan) and Tiffany Nichols (Lance); two brothers, Larry and Gary; two sisters, Dorothy Dees and JoAnn Brown; five grandsons, Sharp and Jake (Anna) Woolston, Jeremey, Ty and Breyden McCain; great-granddaughters, Mabry McCain and Ribbon Woolston; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Neici Woolston (Paul); his parents; his mother- and father-in-law; four brothers, Maurce, Arlis, MD and Dillard; and a sister, Marie See, and an infant sister.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, June 22, at Roller Christeson Funeral Home, with a time of visitation immediately following. Officiating the service will be Bob Meredith, Billy Edgar and Lance Nichols. Honorary pallbearers are his sons-in-law, grandsons, great-granddaughters, Glen Satler, Bill Phillips, Howard Moore, Bill Lovell, Rickey Vanzant, brothers-in-law Johnny Rex and Donnie Lex Wilson, Walmart drivers and Hearthstone Sunday school class.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Gideons or the Harlan Sharp Memorial Scholarship fund at Anstaff Bank.
Services are under the direction of Roller-Christeson Funeral Home.
