Sharon Ramae Gifford

She was baptized and confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls and attended Knox Elementary School before graduating from Lincoln High School in 1954. While at Lincoln, she served as editor-in-chief of the school yearbook, reflecting the leadership and dedication that would characterize her throughout her life.

Following high school, Sharon attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She later continued her education at Holyoke Community College, earning an Associate Degree in Secretarial Sciences and Law.

Sharon met George Edward Gifford shortly after his family moved from Minot, North Dakota, to Thief River Falls in 1952. The two first met at Inga's Café with mutual friends and quickly realized they enjoyed one another's company. Their friendship blossomed into a courtship, followed by an engagement and marriage on October 11, 1958, in Camp Springs, Maryland.

Together, Sharon and George built a remarkable life centered on family, faith, friendship, and service to their country. During George's distinguished United States Air Force career, the family moved twenty-two times over twenty-one years, including multiple assignments in Japan. Sharon embraced the challenges and adventures of military life with grace, resilience, and unwavering devotion to her family.

Throughout those years, she taught Sunday school at various Air Force bases, participated in Protestant Women of the Chapel activities, served as a scout leader, and created a loving home wherever the Air Force sent them. Whether living in Colorado, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Florida, Japan, or elsewhere, Sharon formed lifelong friendships that she treasured throughout her life.

Sharon's professional career included positions as a bookkeeper, legislative secretary, legal secretary, and paralegal. She worked at Parkins Corner Drug during her high school and college years, later served at Annapolis Banking and Trust, worked as personal secretary to a Maryland Delegate in the Maryland House of Representatives, and spent eight years as a secretary and paralegal with a law firm in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Family has always been Sharon's greatest priority. She and George enjoyed downhill skiing, bowling, golfing, Academy football and hockey games, oil painting, travel, and gathering with family and friends. In 1999, they moved to Sugar Land, Texas, to be closer to their son and grandchildren while continuing to travel frequently to visit their daughter and additional family members.

After more than sixty-six years of marriage, Sharon's beloved husband, Lieutenant Colonel George Edward Gifford, USAF (Ret.), passed away on November 19, 2024. His life of service and their enduring partnership remain a source of pride and cherished memories for the entire family.

Sharon is the proud mother of George Edward Gifford Jr. and his wife, Polly Ann Gifford, and Julie Dawn Burgess and her husband, William Carlton Burgess II.

She is the grandmother of Bradley Scott Gifford; George Edward Gifford III; Alexander Reese Gifford; Andrea Lauren Burgess; Dana Grace Burgess; and William Carlton Burgess III.

She is also the great-grandmother of Lyla Jane Gifford, Lyra Renn Gifford, Ryden Blake Gifford, and Eloise Ramae Gifford.

Sharon is the youngest of five Evenstad siblings: Virgil Dennis Evenstad (1927–2023), Phyllis Kragseth (1929–2025), Joan B. Kelver (1932–2020), Larry Evenstad, and Sharon Gifford.

Those who know Sharon remember her steadfast faith, quiet strength, enduring friendships, and unwavering devotion to family. Her life has been marked by service, perseverance, adaptability, and love. Through decades of military moves, world travel, community involvement, and family celebrations, she leaves a legacy that continues through her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the many friends she has gathered along life's journey.