Sharon Kay Johnson-Shannon

Sharon went to Radiology school at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka the very next day after she graduated from Emporia High School in 1959. In 1961 she and her husband Jerry Johnson who she met at radiology school, then moved to Flagstaff, Arizona. They had two daughter; Cynthia and Rebecca.

She used to fly on a small plane out to the Navajo Indian Reservation with a doctor to do x-rays on the Native Americans when she worked in Flagstaff.

Sharon and Jerry left Flagstaff after a short spell working there and moved to Chandler, Arizona. She went to work for a hospital in Mesa, Arizona in about 1962 where she was an x-ray technician. In about 1968 at the age of 27 she became the youngest female Radiology Director in the state of Arizona and possible the whole United States. Some time during her time as a Radiology Director she went to Yale University to do further studies. She wrote a book on Radiology and Productivity. She was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on Radiology use in the USA.

Sharon has traveled all over the world looking at and purchasing millions of dollars of radiology equipment. Places like Israel, Japan, Holland, and Australia. She has put on Large Radiology Seminars all over the United States. She has been a guest speaker at several seminars with thousands in attendance. At one of the seminars she met and spoke with President Ford and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neal. Tip O'Neal took quite a liking to her. She was the Radiology Director over two very large hospitals in the Mesa and Phoenix area of Arizona for 41 years.

Upon retiring in 2003 she was approached to continue working as a director in a different location some place in the USA. She finally settled on working in the Oakland an Berkeley, California area. Her directorship was then expanded to include five major hospitals, three in Oakland and two in Berkeley. She finally retired in 2013 after 51 years. Sharon served on the Board of Directors of Christian Care for approximately 30 years which was a great honor to her.

In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to Fellowship Square Mesa; 6945 E. Main St Mesa, Arizona 85207 to the Sharon Shannon Memorial. All donations will go to help the memory care unit that Sharon was being cared for.