Sharon R. Toneff

Sharon Rae Toneff, age 88, passed away peacefully while in the care of Hospice in Tampa, Florida on January 24, 2026. Sharon was born March 13, 1937, in Gary, Indiana to Irene and Robert McKenna. She graduated from Gary’s Emerson High School in 1956 and married her high school sweetheart George Toneff in 1958. They settled down in Hobart, Indiana and raised five children. In her younger years she played softball, volleyball, and was on a bowling team, and then later she volunteered to support her children by being a den mother, score keeper, as well as seamstress, baker, and chef. After raising her children, Sharon had a paper route in Hobart, Indiana and started classes at Indiana University Northwest in Nursing. In 1998, she joined her daughter in Tampa, Florida to help care for her elderly mother. Sharon volunteered at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and Chiaramonte Elementary school where she built a beautiful garden with the children in her Garden Club. She is preceded in death by her parents Irene and Robert McKenna, Patricia Coats, sister, Robert McKenna, brother, George Toneff, husband, Robert Toneff, son, and granddaughters Celina Slowick and Stephanie Deutsch. She is survived by her sister Cathy Henderson, three sons, Michael, Stephen, and David Toneff, her daughter Sherry, eight grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and multiple cousins, nephews and nieces. She will be remembered as a deeply caring and godly woman.

We ask that you join our family in prayer; Sharon was a devout Catholic, and nothing would make her spirit happier.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

I would not be the woman I am today without you, Grandma. Thank you for all the love and lessons you pressed into me as a child. I love you always and forever. – Quinnie