The Extra Mile Libby woman is honored to serve veterans

At the Veterans of Foreign Wars Harper Erdman Post 1548, things change over the years as with anywhere, but for the past 28 years there has been one constant: Stella Sharp.

Sharp was a teletypist for the military during WWII, handling messages and sending them on to commanders. After the war, she met her future husband, Don Sharp, who had just been discharged from the Army.

But her husband never joined the VFW, and it wasn’t until several years after his death that she volunteered to join the post’s auxiliary in Libby.

At first, Sharp did it for herself, she said.

Several people had been encouraging her to join the American Legion or VFW, and she finally gave in, hoping it would be a good way to meet people.

But 28 years later, it’s not socializing that has kept Sharp involved.

“Just what the VFW stands for is helping veterans and helping families of veterans, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do,” she said. “Because I believe in it — I believe very strongly in helping our veterans.”

At the post, Sharp is known as someone who will happily take on any task she is asked to do, said Post Commander Rob Beall.

“If she can physically do it, she’ll do it,” he said. “And if she can’t physically do it, she’ll try.”

Sharp is a diabetic and has to wear compression stockings. As a member of the VFW Post 1548 Honor Guard, she used to march in parades with the rest of the post auxiliary.

She recalled one parade during which she felt as if her legs might give out. They were midway up Mineral Avenue at the time.

But Sharp was carrying the American flag, and all she concentrated on for those final blocks was that she couldn’t allow the flag to touch the ground.

At the end of the parade, unable to find anyone else to take the flag back to the post, Sharp took a moment to rest against a light pole, then took it back herself, always careful to show the flag full respect.

“I just stood there until I got my bearings, and then I went back to the post, but because it was the American flag, I was not about to let that flag touch the ground,” she said.

Beall said that he thinks of Sharp as kind of like a den mother for the post.

She organizes the monthly lunch for veterans’ widows that the post sponsors, getting all the women together and making sure it runs smoothly. One year when there was no one to handle the annual awards ceremony at the post, she stepped up and made sure it happened.

“She has never faulters,” said VFW Post 1548 cantene manager Jule Mason.

Beall and Mason agreed that, as someone who has been with the post longer than anyone else, Sharp is also a tremendous resource for knowledge.

Beall said that when Sharp attends the annual VFW convention — she has only missed one in years, and then only because she was very sick — she seems to know everyone, and remember what roles they have served in.

“The people she knows will just astound you,” Beall said. “The people that know her, and she knows, it’s crazy.”

Mason, who has known Sharp for many years and worked with her for the past five, summed Sharp up in one word: “She is a miracle.”

Even though she can’t carry the flag anymore, Sharp is still in the honor guard.

She said that it was difficult for her, when she attended the funeral of her son, to be seated instead of up as part of the honor guard.

“I was so out of place, because I had to sit with his kids, and not be up there honoring him,” she said.

She has, in the past, been the one who chided younger VFW members who weren’t in the honor guard, she said. “I feel proud to be honoring the ones that are deceased.”

For Sharp, her service to veterans is an honor for her, she said.

“It’s an honor to honor these — to help these veterans. Anything I can to help them. It’s an honor,” she said.

“The extra mile,” will runs in the final issue of Your Western News each month. It is a feature on someone in Lincoln County who gives of themselves for their community. We are always seeking nominations from fellow volunteers, coworkers, bosses, family, friends, neighbors or anyone else who sees what a volunteer does and thinks others should too. Please send your recommendation, a short explanation of why you think the individual should be featured and information on how to reach you or the individual you nominate to bkibbey@thewesternnews.com, or The Western News, 311 California Avenue, Libby, MT 59923.