Alicia Sharp moved to Vicksburg in 1986, and during her 38 years in the River City, she made a lasting impression on the lives she touched and the community she loved.

Sharp died Thursday, Aug. 8. She was 77.

Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Sharp was the daughter of Alicia Ware and Eugene Niles Shrader. During her childhood, Sharp’s family moved several times, but after landing in Gulfport, it became home.

Sharp attended the University of Mississippi, where she received a degree in education in 1969. While at Ole Miss, she also met her husband, Harry. Alicia went on to teach elementary school in Yazoo City, junior high school in Hollywood, Fla. and she received a master’s degree from Northeast Louisiana University in 1977, the same year the couple married.

After marrying, the Sharps moved to Coconut Grove, Fla., Harry’s hometown, and there Alicia continued her teaching career. She also owned and operated the Gift House and Alicia’s Better Clothing in South Miami.

In 1985, the couple came to Vicksburg and bought the Salvation Army headquarters, which had originally been the home of Duff and Mary Lake Green. The Sharps restored the home and opened the Duff Green Mansion Bed and Breakfast. In addition to the mansion, the couple also restored several other historic buildings and in doing so received numerous awards, both locally and at the state level.

It was in 1986 that Harry and Alicia decided to make Vicksburg their home. Through the years, they made many friends, one of whom was Carole Campbell.

Campbell described her friend Alicia as having a gregarious personality.

“Alicia was such a big presence. If she is in your life, she is a big presence,” Campbell said. “I just loved her dearly and she was just a very, very kind person.”

Campbell also said Alicia was a very dedicated educator. The women both taught adult education programs, one of which had been funded by the University of Mississippi.

She later went on to teach and serve as a school counselor at Vicksburg High School, Warrenton Elementary, and Vicksburg Intermediate before retiring in 2012.

“Alicia always had time for children,” Debra Potts said. Potts served as the secretary for Vicksburg Intermediate during the same time Alicia was serving as the school’s counselor.

“If she saw somebody that needed that extra time with her, she would call them out of class, and she would take time and just sit and listen to them. If it was somebody that needed a pair of shoes or a coat or something, she made sure those children had what they needed. She just loved the children. 

“It wasn’t like a job,” Potts said, of Alicia’s position as the school counselor. “Alicia really cared for the children and adults, too. She looked out for the teachers, especially the new teachers starting out. She was just a caring person. Her profession was her life. She just loved people. And I’m going to miss her. I really am.”

Campbell’s sister Ann Grogan remembered Alicia and all the fun times the Campbell, Grogan and Sharp families shared together.

“Our families have always been close,” Grogan said. “We celebrated holidays together, summer vacations on the Coast and Christmas, together. And we just always had a really good time together.”

During the last few weeks of Alicia’s life, Grogan said she and Campbell were able to share some time with her. 

“I am very thankful we had that time together,” she said. “Even in the hospital, as tired as her body was, she was still Alicia. She would come through with that little spark in her eyes and smile on her face — that little quirk she always made. She really did always have a smile on her face.”

Grogan said Alicia was also an enterprising person.

“She was involved in different businesses, and she was always trying to make everything better. She was trying to make her home a better place and her city a better place and she wanted everybody to get along and enjoy one another,” Grogan said, adding, “She was just a good, good friend.”

Friends Harley Caldwell, who purchased the Duff Green Mansion from the Sharps, and Penny Varner reiterated many of the comments already made by Alicia’s friends.

“Alicia always met me with her huge smile,” Varner said. “She was always upbeat and happy and had a wonderful infectious laugh that often turned into a deep chuckle. Alicia enjoyed conversation, and she had the gift of calling everyone by their names. She will be missed by dear friends, and her lovingly devoted family.”

“She had a bigger-than-life personality,” Caldwell said. “And she was kind, and she was generous, and she was so committed to the children at Vicksburg Intermediate. I visited her there many times and children would come in and they didn’t have their belt, and she would find them a belt. She was so committed to the children of the Vicksburg Warren School District.”:

“What has been so profound,” Harry said of the many posts about his late wife on Facebook, “is all the students that are now adults that have said how much she has helped them as a counselor. She and I would be out, when she could get out, and people who I had no idea who they were would come rushing up to her and thanking her profusely for what she did for them in school. It was just unbelievable. She touched so many lives because she had such a good heart.”

Alica is survived by her husband, Harry Carter Sharp; her children, Katie Sharp Nettles (Bubba) and David Carter Sharp (Keriann); her grandchildren, Lydia Nettles, Lee Nettles, Carter Sharp and Charlie Sharp; her brother, David Mitchell Shrader (Cindy); her nieces, Sarah Shrader Pierce and Carolyn Shrader Paganis; and her nephew, Michael David Shrader.

A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 14 at the Glenwood Funeral Home. Visitation will be held prior to the service from 9 a.m. until the hour of the service. Burial will take place at Greenlawn Gardens Cemetery.