Sharon's sweet and generous spirit touched all who knew her. She loved
her family with all of her heart. Her faith in God was deep and
sustaining, giving her courage, strength, and wisdom as she raised four
children and supported her husband Michael for thirty years as a military
spouse.
Sharon was born to Shirley Evelyn (Bassett) and Lloyd Anthony
Vondracek on July 21, 1949, in San Francisco, CA. Sharon grew up in Oregon and California, where her
father was a credit manager for U.S. Steel. She finished high school at La Serna High, graduating in 1967.
She was active as a class treasurer and was a member of Job's Daughters for which she also served as a
pianist. Sharon attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA, 1967-1971 obtaining her bachelor's degree in
Home Economics.
On December 1969, as junior in college, she married Michael Jay Barron of Santa Rosa, CA. Upon
graduation, Sharon became an Army wife and began her worldwide adventures, which included 24
moves over her married lifetime of 51 years -- Korea, Italy and many US bases included. Motherhood
began in 1974 with the birth of Mark, followed by the birth of twins Kathleen and Kimberly in 1976, then
Jennifer in 1979. After bearing four children, she continued her education, earning her Master's degree
in Nutrition at Auburn University while the family was stationed at Fort Benning, GA. Her career as a
nutritionist largely focused on working in health departments and the Women, Infant, Children (WIC)
program, helping her "moms and babies." After military retirement in 2001, Sharon and Michael moved
first to Alexandria, VA, where Sharon worked in the health department in Washington, DC as a WIC
nutritionist, then to Melbourne, Florida for her husband's continued work with Harris Corp until 2006.
Sharon then took advantage of her husband's promise to follow her for the next 35 years. She plotted
her children's homes on a map, looked for the center point, and her finger landed on Nashville, TN. She
then applied for and was accepted into her dream job as a supervisor of twelve county WIC clinics
surrounding Nashville. She left that position in 2011 and began her teaching career at Western
Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY as an adjunct professor of Nutrition. Sharon made her final
move to Melbourne in 2013, back into the home she had always loved the most.
Shortly before that, in 2012 while teaching at the university, Sharon was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's
Lymphoma which she fought courageously into remission. She celebrated by taking yearly trips to Italy
with Michael, to see again and again a country and people she loved. Then in early 2018, Sharon was
diagnosed with dementia. In spite of the progressive, debilitating nature of that disease, she remained
the sweet, giving person she was by nature, never losing her sense of humor, faith in God, nor ability to
encourage and bless others.
Sharon was preceded in death by her parents, her lovely daughter Kimberly (Barron) Kim, her dearest
cousin Diane (Vondracek) Bell, her sister-in-law Patti, and her brother-in-law Randall Barron. She is
survived by her sister Thea, her husband Michael, her other children Mark Barron, Kathleen Givens and
Jennifer Barron, and seven grandchildren, Gabriella Nopo, Luke Kim, Natalia, Miguel and Paolo
Caballero-Barron, and Finley and AnnaLee Graeper