Sweet, loving, caring, talented and gifted in every way possible were just some of the ways friends of the late Sharen Wilson described her.

Wilson’s neighbor and longtime friend Launo Moore said she met Wilson in the 1970s in Hammond, La., where their husbands worked together.

“We just became good friends,” she said. “We moved up here in 2001, and they would come up and visit so much and they liked it so much that we finally just gave them a key to the house because we couldn’t go anywhere.”

Moore said as Wilson and her husband continued to visit and meet more and more neighbors and friends, they decided to move to Vicksburg just after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

“They always said if it was meant to be God will find them a house,” she said. “He found them a house right down the street.”

Moore said Wilson had wanted to sell her home and move back to Hammond to be closer to her family by the time she was 70. Wilson, who was murdered last weekend, would have turned 70 Friday.

“She’ll be back in Hammond, but it will only be in a grave,” she said. “But she’s not there, she’s in heaven. She went directly to heaven.”

Moore said Wilson was a very devout Christian, who regularly attended St. Michael Catholic Church.

“Our only consolation is that we know exactly where she is,” she said. “She’s in heaven with God and Dixon and other loved ones. Her peace is now in heaven. That’s our ultimate goal in life, but we certainly don’t want to go out that way.”

Wilson’s husband, Dixon, died three years ago.

Moore said Wilson loved working in her garden.

“She could root a plant faster than anyone in the world,” she said. “She also told us she had a rose named after her, the Rose of Sharon. The true name for the Rose of Sharon is actually Althea, which was Sharen’s mother’s name.”

Wilson was a workaholic, Moore said.

“She always said, ‘I’m German,’” she said. “She always had the most gorgeous twinkle in her eye and the most gorgeous smile on her face.

“She had a love for life, and my God, she loved those grandkids,” she said.“This just isn’t supposed to be happening. I think if people would just put God back in their life we could all get along. Instead of dividing we need to unite.”

Another friend and neighbor, Peggy Fulghum said Wilson was one of the good ones.

“Nobody deserves to have this happen to them, but definitely not her,” she said.

 

Co-workers mourn the loss of a member of their ‘family’

With the news of Wilson’s death, many have visited Peterson’s Art and Antiques in downtown Vicksburg to express their sympathies to those Wilson worked with.

“Everyone’s been calling like we’re the family,” Mary Benson said. “Everyone’s been real sweet.”

Wilson worked at the downtown Vicksburg store eight years.

Peterson’s is like a tight-knit family who not only work together but also enjoy spending time together. They appreciate all the calls and visits they have gotten from people in the community and have started a condolence book.

“Tons of people keep coming by the store to say they’re sorry,” Bobbie Marascalco said.

Hard working, dependable, fun and talented were just some of the adjectives Marascalco, Benson, Ginger Rosser and Kim Ferris used to describe Wilson. They say she was involved in water aerobics at the YMCA, the art association and hosted neighborhood watch meetings.

Not only that, they said Wilson was not an elderly lady, but a small woman with a lot of strength who would work circles around everyone else. She would get on top of ladders to hang banners and artwork to decorate the store.

Some of her strength came from caring for her husband who had a tumor on his spine and was in a wheelchair before his death three years ago.

The Wilson’s moved to Vicksburg from Hammond, La. after Katrina. Though their home was not damaged, they found friendship in Vicksburg and chose to make it their new home.

Through the tears, the ladies laughed about the terms she put her husband under for her to move to Vicksburg.

“She told her husband, ‘The only way I’ll move up there is if I can buy the purple house on Drummond Street and I want a black Mercedes convertible,’ and she got both,” Rosser said.

After her husband died, Wilson waited a year and decided she wanted to go back to Hammond.

Her house had been on the market for nearly two years.

One of Wilson’s favorite activities was rearranging the shop. Saturday she was busily looking around the store and planning where she wanted to move the counter and other items. Next week the ladies will honor those plans and rearrange the store the way Wilson had wanted.

“We hope Sharen gives us some divine words,” Marascalco said.

 

Alana Norris also contributed to this report