Sharon Kay Durrant

It feels impossible to summarize the entire life of an extraordinary being within a few paragraphs, so we ask forgiveness for the vastness of truth we must compress.

Her family called her Kay. She was born on September 11, 1944, to (Ruth) Rosella and John Durrant in the Grandview suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Her family was made complete with the arrival of her sister, Marilyn, three years later. They were an active and playful family that spent their warm weekends on the Scioto River boating and water skiing while some winter weekends were spent snow skiing. The girls adored their dog named Frisky and their pet white rabbits. Sharon may or may not have tucked her little sister into a cabinet on occasion, but more often than not let her out. Together, they tested out the tin can telephone line and discovered that it worked all the way across the street. Her cousins remember her as fun-loving and ready for adventure, beating everyone at a game of pitch, turning staircases into mountains, and hopping a fence to watch the local drive-in movie.

Sharon was a student within the Grandview school system throughout her youth, graduating from Grandview Heights HS in 1962, where she was extremely active and deeply involved in school activities. She was an athlete and President of the Girls’ Athletic Association (field hockey, basketball, table tennis), a musician, a leader, an honor student, an editor, a camp counselor, and a thespian. She played piano but loathed recitals. She played guitar and sang with the choir.

She graduated with a degree in Psychology from Miami University at Oxford in 1966 and was teaching in the Flint Public School system when she married Richard Langworthy. She continued her education and graduated in 1971 from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Guidance and Counseling.

Though the marriage didn’t last, many are grateful that it brought her to Florida in 1973. She was a school counselor at Sabal Point Elementary in Longwood, Florida and by the end of the decade, she was building her own business as a Family and Marriage Counselor in Central Florida.

She continued to hone her musical talents and while playing her dulcimer with the Amazing All-Girl String Band, a woman named Hone became quite smitten. Ellen and Sharon began their partnership on August 26, 1979. Together, they showed us all how to show up and stand up for what is right and true. They were active members of the National Organization for Women, and founding sisters in the Women’s Liberation Front of Central Florida. They marched for women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and the Equal Rights Amendment, provided training for women’s clinic defenders, and they never stopped showing up. As they aged and marching became more difficult, they showed up in their electric vehicle, long before it was on-trend.

They joined the First Unitarian Church of Orlando in May 1990 and fast became active and involved members of their beloved community. Much like her high school career, Sharon’s list of activities and contributions were vast. She and Ellen were the first gay couple to be legally married at 1U, decades after their union ceremony in Gore Hall. Sharon was on the board of the Alliance, she played dulcimer and raised her voice as a member of the Folk Ensemble, she sang with the Chalice Choir, and as a Pastoral Care Associate, she not only held space for members of her community but nurtured others as they learned how to lead. When it was time to pick up the banners and march, Sharon and Ellen hit the streets in Sharon’s handmade pink pussy hats for National Women’s Marches, for Marriage Equality and Gay Rights, March for Our Lives against Gun Violence, and Stood on the Side of Love for Black Lives Matter. When they lost their grandson, Geoff, they marched for Suicide Prevention with Donate Life America and Our Legacy for organ donation in support of their daughter, Ellen.

The music legacy for which many reflect on Sharon’s presence in their lives included performing with the Amazing Almost All-Girl String Band. She sat to sing with her dulcimer in her lap as she raised her voice with other lesbian tenors in the Harmony Sisters, and together they performed on the steps of the Orange County Courthouse demanding marriage equality. She traveled once a month to Barberville to offer free dulcimer lessons and often auctioned off lessons or homemade ‘pizzelles of the month’ to raise funds to support the church.

None of this covers the most important roles Sharon played in the lives of her family. She became a stepmother to Ellen’s daughter, Ellen Jr., she was a soul-mother to Junior’s best friend, Michele, and she was Gran Gran to Junior’s two boys, Gregory and Geoffrey, and more recently, Great Gran Gran to four amazing kids (Anthony Jr., Joanna, Charlotte, and Eleanor) who came into their lives when Gregory met and married his wife, Gina.

Sharon and Ellen were both directly involved with girls’ softball with their daughter and boys’ little league with their grandsons. Together, they created the Rookie Girls’ Softball Division program and served as coaches and umpires, then later created the Girls’ Softball Big League Division. They served as loyal grannies and occasional umpires for Azalea Park Little League and North Orlando Kiwanis Little League during Greg and Geoff’s tenure.

In her final weeks, those who love Sharon reached out from all facets of her life wanting her to know how instrumental she was in helping them to feel safe in their authenticity, to speak their truth without hesitation, to feel confident in their skin, to know they had been heard, held and valued for exactly who they are. If she didn’t know how well-loved and respected she was before her illness, she certainly understood it as those messages came flooding in.

While completing her Five Wishes form, which is an act of love that she declared for those of us who love her, so we would know how to care for her at the end of her life, she was given the question to answer: “How do I wish to be remembered?” And her reply was simply, “She was a pain in the ass, but she was OUR pain in the ass!” We can’t imagine life without her, but we are far better beings for having shared this life with her.

Sharon is survived by her wife of 43 years, Ellen Hutson Hone, her stepdaughter, Ellen Tuech (and husband Tim Tuech), her grandson, Gregory Wasden (and wife Gina Wasden, her four great-grans, Anthony, Joanna, Charlotte, and Eleanor), her sister, Marilyn Durrant (and wife Juli Germany, her niece, and nephew Julie and Phillip), her sister-in-love, Penne Beckett (and husband Jonny, and niece, Kelli Cooper). In peace and comfort, she joins her parents, Rosella and John Durrant, and her grandson, Geoffrey Wasden.

Sharon was treasured, valued, and loved, and is deeply missed by all who have been blessed to know her. Her life will be celebrated on Saturday, February 18, 2023, at 11am EST at 1U, The First Unitarian Church of Orlando, located at 1901 E Robinson Street, Orlando, FL 32803. The service will also be streamed on YouTube.

Donations can be made, in lieu of flowers, to support her wife, who has vascular dementia and has just moved into assisted living memory care, through PayPal to [email protected], or in honor of her grandson, Geoff, donations may be made to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Send an email to Ellen Jr. at [email protected] to inquire.