Sharon Lea Sanders

Sharon Lea Lipps Sanders was born January 13, 1940, in Shelby, Michigan to Ann (Porenta) Lipps and Bernerd F. “Tom” Lipps. Sharon grew up surrounded by her parents, younger sister Jillene and younger brother Tom, and a large extended family. She graduated from Shelby High School in 1957 and was the first in her family to go to college. Following her graduation from high school, she enrolled as an Early Education student at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, graduating with a B.A. in Elementary Education in 1961.

Following her graduation from university, Sharon worked as an Elementary Teacher in Grand Rapids Michigan Public Schools for four years. As a young woman, she was an avid traveler, spending her summers in Cape Cod and Hawaii. In 1965, she accepted a position as an Elementary teacher with Denver Public Schools and moved to Denver. She taught Grades 4-6 for the next eight years at DPS Jakob Schmidt School in West Denver, where she was loved by many of her students and their parents. She went on to develop lifelong friendships with the teachers, mothers, as well as several of the students she taught as children.

After moving to Denver, Sharon met her husband, John Edwin Sanders, at a teacher inservice event. They dated, married in 1970, and in 1973, welcomed their first daughter, Jonna Ann. Sharon stopped teaching after the birth of her first child, to concentrate on motherhood. Second daughter Rebecca Jeanne (Becky); followed in 1976, and the little family was complete. The Sanders family made their home first in South Denver, then later in Centennial. After her children were older, Sharon returned to teaching as a Substitute Teacher in Aurora Public Schools.

Sharon was a devoted wife and mother to her family and spent most of her life caring for her husband and children. Sharon stayed by her husband’s side for 45 years, until his sudden death from cancer in 2016. She experienced significant challenges to her own health for the last decade, which she bore with grace and strength. Her daughters will remember her as a person that would put her family's needs always before her own. A person that always had your back, no matter how wrong you were.

Sharon took great pleasure from reading and keeping up her home and garden. She loved to be with family and friends and was always available to talk to a friend in need. She loved going to pottery and estate sales, trips to museums and the mountains, and taking walks at the Littleton Museum. She cared greatly for the friends she made at Lakewood Reserve Assisted Living during her four years living there.

Sharon is preceded in death by her husband, John E. Sanders, and her parents Ann Porenta Lipps and Tom Lipps.

She is survived by her daughter Jonna Sanders and grandsons Ethan Melidossian and Jakob Melidossian of Scituate, RI. Her daughter Becky Sanders and her daughter Rowan Sanderka of Denver, CO. Her sister Jillene Jeffries of Mears, Michigan, and brother Tom Lipps of Hanna, Michigan.

A funeral service for Sharon will be held Wednesday, September 6, 2023 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary & Cemetery, 6601 South Colorado Blvd, Centennial, CO 80121, followed by a committal service from 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.olingerchapelhill.com for the Sanders family.