Sharon Dunham

Dunham, Sharon 7/15/1962 - 10/17/2021 Surprise, Arizona Sharon Kay Dunham passed away on October 17, 2021, at her retirement home in Surprise, Arizona, following a brief illness. Sharon was born in Plainwell, Michigan, and grew up on First Avenue, where she famously kept a horse named Tinker in the garage, graduating from Plainwell High School in 1960. Sharon was preceded in death in 2019 by her husband Francis, to whom she was married for 57 years and who was also a 1960 graduate of Plainwell High School. Sharon, always a great lover of animals and nature, as well as a natural farmer, purchased a small run-down farm with her husband in 1967, and spent the next two decades, along with her husband, renovating a severely dilapidated farm house into a comfortable home and rejuvenating the depleted soil. Sharon and Fran kept a large vegetable garden and as well as a number of horses, pigs, chickens, an occasional steer, a peacock named Oscar, and an infamously mischievous billy goat named Rufus. Sharon, always hardworking and industrious, also had several full-time jobs in the area while maintaining the house, garden, and animals. Shortly after the birth of her first grandchild in 1993, Sharon and Fran left the farm and moved to Otsego, and she threw her boundless energy into being a grandmother, first to Alexandria and then to Chad, often traveling great distances to attend birthdays, holidays, and eventually graduations. Upon retiring, Sharon, who had rarely left her home in Michigan, spent a winter at an RV resort in Arizona where her brother and sister-in-law were also staying, and immediately fell in love with the Southwest. Sharon soon purchased a home at the Sunflower Resort where she spent most of the next twenty years. Sharon loved exploring the region, taking many trips and learning as much as she could about its natural wonders. Never one to sit still, Sharon developed a talent and passion for basket weaving, many of which she gave away to family and friends. Sharon also enjoyed a very active social life at the resort, making many friends with whom she traveled and played cards, all of whom will miss her a great deal. Sharon was preceded in death by her parents, Gordon and Jean (Fairweather) Finch, her husband Francis, and by a daughter, Lauri Bradstreet. She is survived by two adored and adoring grandchildren, Alexandria Bradstreet (Kenny Jones), of Nashville, Tennessee, and Chad (Jentry) Bradstreet, of Krum, Texas, as well as a son, Mark Dunham (Diomedes Rabago), of Kalamazoo, brothers Skip (June) Finch, of Gobles, and Rick Finch, also of Gobles, and several nieces, nephews, and cousins. Cremation has taken place and a service is being planned for a later date.