Sharon Lea (Lagervall) Sturgill, 84, of Yates Center, Kansas, passed away on Friday, September 4, 2026.

Sharon was born May 8, 1942, in Rochester, Minnesota, to Ross Lagervall and Violet (Herrick) Lagervall. As a teenager and into her twenties she worked at China Hall in Rochester, where she sold and advised on fine china, glassware, crockery, and flatware for some of Rochester’s most influential families and institutions. Her knowledge of those pieces stayed with her for life. In her younger years she also served in the Civil Air Patrol and was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary in Eyota, Minnesota.

In retirement she volunteered as a librarian at the middle school library in Yates Center, where she passed her love of books to generations of students. She later began splitting her time between Kansas and Minnesota so she could be near her family.

Sharon was baptized at Bethel Lutheran Church in Rochester, where she and her sisters all taught Sunday school. In later years she was a devoted member of First Baptist Church in Yates Center, where she sang in the choir, taught Sunday school, and helped run the church’s clothes closet, giving donated clothing to families in need. Even when she was in Minnesota she never missed a service, listening in every Wednesday night and to both Sunday services.

She had a gift for talking with anyone and believed in the best in people. She gave freely even when she had little herself. At the school library, if a child could not afford something at the book fair, she quietly covered it or sent them home with a book of her own. Everything she did was in some way an effort to show her love for Jesus. She was fiercely devoted to her family and was ready whenever the Lord called her home.

To her grandchildren, Sharon was a steady source of love. She was empathetic and compassionate, quick to celebrate anything they made or took up, and she would take an interest in their hobbies just so she would have one more thing to talk with them about.

When she did not have her Bible open, she had a book in hand. Sharon was exceptionally well read, with a deep command of classic literature as well as contemporary fiction; Janet Evanovich and the Enola Holmes mysteries were favorites. She was also a master of the English language, able to trace a word to its root and name its origin, whether Latin, Greek, or Old English. She collected fine china and jewelry all her life and loved her animals dearly: her own dog Maggie, and her grandson’s dogs Curie and Jericho and their bird Fozie, all of whom she cared for as her own.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Ross Lagervall and Violet Lagervall.

Sharon is survived by her sisters, Lynn Rud (David) of Rochester, Minnesota, and Kathy Smith of Eyota, Minnesota; her sons, Jamie Ruehmann of Ridgeland, Wisconsin, Jonathan Sturgill (Julie) of Charleston, South Carolina, and Joshua Sturgill of Owatonna, Minnesota; ten grandchildren; and her cousins Stan Jones, Russ Jones, and Pam Littlefield.

A Funeral Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, September 17, 2026, in the River Park Chapel at Macken Funeral Home. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, any gifts received be donated in memory of Sharon to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, to give children the gift of reading. Donate Here

A livestream of the service will be available at www.mackenfuneralhome.com.