Sharon Darinda Johnston Hilburn

On the evening of Jan. 10, 2021 our beloved Sharon passed peacefully in the PAMS Hospital in Texarkana, TX as a result of kidney failure. Sharon was 74 years old.

Sharon was born in Hope, AR on Oct. 15, 1946 but was raised in Shreveport, LA. She was the oldest of 3 girls born to Xury Paul Johnston and Juanita Belle Haynie.

Sharon was just about 3 or 4 years old when she and her parents moved from Hope to Shreveport. There she attended school through the years eventually graduating with a degree in education. Sharon was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the age of 11. She waited a long time to meet her sweetheart, Russell, whom she married at the age of 27. They were married for 47 years, have 5 children and 9 grandchildren.

Sharon and Russell along with Sharon’s parents and sisters traveled to Salt Lake City, UT in Nov. of 1973 to be sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was a triple marriage sealing between Sharon & Russell, Juanita & Xury, Paula (sister) & Harley, and then the 3 girls were sealed to their parents.

Sharon and Russell decided to move to Salt Lake City, UT in 1979 with their first 2 children, Paul and Kim. Sharon was a homemaker but also worked at times. She was a teacher, an aid at the School for the Deaf and Blind in Salt Lake City, and janitorial staff for different companies.

Sharon had a love for animals. She had many dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and horses during her life. Sharon always made sure they were loved and cared for. Sharon also had a love for hummingbirds; watching them fly up to the feeders in the yard.

Sharon and Russell loved to travel in their most recent years. Visiting places in the Midwest, East Coast and back home to the South. Sharon was a volunteer, along side her husband, at the Bosque Del Apache Nation Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico and the City of Rocks National Reserve in South-Central Idaho.

Sharon was preceded in death by her parents Xury Paul Johnston and Juanita Belle Haynie. She is survived by her husband, Russell George Hilburn, their children in order from oldest to youngest; Russell Paul Hilburn, Susan Kimberly Jackson, Carrie Amanda Woodruff, William Mitchell Hilburn and Christopher Matthew Hilburn, and her sisters Paula Jean Rietbrock and Donna Rae Lyon.

Sharon will be cremated and no funeral services will be held at this time.