Sharilyn D. Robben

Sharilyn was born on November 30, 1948, as the eldest child to Elmer and Faith Vogt in Fowler, Kansas. Sharilyn’s father built a family home in Meade, Kansas, to raise his growing family, and Sharilyn’s brother, David, was born in 1950. Sadly, Sharilyn’s father Elmer died at 28 from complications of appendicitis when his children were three and one.

When Sharilyn’s mother went to work after her husband’s passing, a village of Vogt relatives and dear friends, the Seyberts, rallied around her to help raise the kids. This experience profoundly shaped Sharilyn, fostering a deep desire to have her own loving family and an extended community.

Faith married Leo Bachman when “Shari,” as her mother called her, was 11. Leo adopted Shari and Dave and raised them as his own.

As Sharilyn came of age, she devoured National Geographic magazines, which sparked an interest in travel and other cultures. She developed a love for music from her mom and stepdad singing together well into their golden years. Her interest grew thanks to an outstanding music teacher at Meade High School, where she was homecoming queen. Sharilyn excelled in various academic areas and graduated in 1966.

Her love of education guided her to pursue an education degree from Kansas State University, where she became a “Tri-Delt,” the informal name of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She fell in love and married Gary Robben shortly before her junior year in Manhattan, Kansas, and they lived in married student housing until Sharilyn graduated. The couple then moved to the Kansas City area, where Gary worked for Arthur Andersen, a top accounting firm, and Sharilyn began teaching sixth grade at Rhein Benninghoven Elementary School.

Sharilyn and Gary had three children. During her final pregnancy, Sharilyn left the classroom to focus on serving her family and the community. She volunteered as a Girl Scout troop leader, decorated Gary’s office building after he started his own accounting firm, and drove her kids to a myriad of dance classes, soccer, and tennis. She developed many friendships by being involved in her children’s schools, meeting neighbors, playing bridge, and joining Johnson County Young Matrons.

She traveled extensively to Arizona, where she and Gary had a second home, and she also visited her older daughter in Chicago and later Nashville multiple times a year. Sharilyn and Gary also enjoyed traveling internationally.

When her youngest child was a teenager, Sharilyn found a way to enmesh her cultural interests with her love of education, earning one of the first master’s degrees in English as a Second Language (ESL) from the University of Kansas. She then held the first position in ESL in leadership at both the Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley school districts in the Overland Park area. Sharilyn then worked at Northwest Middle School in the Kansas City, Kansas, school district alongside her daughter under the Rise to the Top Obama Grant during the last two years of her career.

Outside of the classroom, her favorite thing in midlife and beyond was spending time being Gigi to her four grandkids.

After forty-eight years of marriage, Sharilyn and Gary divorced.

Sharilyn later married Roy Twist, her high school sweetheart. She and Roy enjoyed life in Leawood, Kansas, returning to their hometown, visiting Roy’s family, and traveling overseas with Church of the Resurrection, where Sharilyn also expressed her love of music and faith through singing in the choir.

Sharilyn is survived by her husband, Roy Twist; her brother, David Vogt of Lenoir City, Tenn.; her children: Loral (Seth) Pepoon of Dickson, Tenn., and Lance (Kelly) Robben and Liana (James) Hodges of Overland Park, Kan.; and her grandchildren: Grant and Natalie Robben, and Dylan and Aidan Hodges.

Although Sharilyn is no longer with us on Earth, her memory and legacy will live on in the hearts of her family and friends for decades to come. Her family takes comfort that they will see her again in Heaven because she called on the name of Jesus.

Services will be held on March 28 at 2 p.m. in the Wesley Chapel at the Church of the Resurrection, located at 13720 Roe Avenue, Leawood, Kansas 66224. Enter the parking lot off of Roe Avenue and the Wesley Chapel will be on your right. It is clearly marked. Park anywhere in front of the chapel.

The service will broadcast live online beginning at 1:35 on March 28 at https://online.brushfire.com/careandmentalwellness/memorials/bg4pg4yy4f

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Church of the Resurrection/Choir or Johnson County Young Matrons.