Sharon O'Connell Marshalll

1942 - 2020

Sharon O'Connell Marshall ARLINGTON--Sharon O'Connell Marshall of Arlington, Texas, died Saturday, April 18, 2020, at a Mansfield hospital after an ongoing battle with cancer. She was 77. Sharon was born to Joseph and Peggy Knowles O'Connell in New York City in 1942. As a young girl, she moved to France with her family, which inspired her lifelong passion for the French language and culture. She later returned to the U.S. where she graduated from Nyack High School in Nyack, N.Y., in 1960, and in 1964 she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in French and secondary education from the University of New Hampshire. During her college years, she spent a year abroad and received a Certificat d'Etudes in French grammar and literature from the University of Grenoble in France. Sharon began her career as a high school French teacher in Connecticut. In 1965, she married her high school sweetheart, John Marshall (married 1965-1997), and moved to Williamstown, Mass., where she taught French in Bennington, Vt. After her husband graduated from Williams College, the pair moved to Michigan, and Sharon continued teaching French. In 1970 they moved to Texas, where she earned a Master of Education on guidance and counseling from the University of Texas at El Paso. In 1975, she began working as the executive director of Casa Blanca, a halfway house in El Paso, until she moved to Fort Worth in 1980. Sharon dedicated the rest of her career to The Women's Haven of Tarrant County where she served as the executive director until her retirement in 2004. During this time, her leadership helped save lives and protected thousands of women and children from domestic violence. In 1986 she was honored with the Hercules Award for outstanding leadership in the field of human services presented by the United Way of Metropolitan Tarrant County; in 1997, she was selected as one of Tarrant County's Most Influential Business Women by The Business Press; in 2002, Texas Governor Mike Moncrief commissioned her as an advisor on family violence issues. In addition to her career, she raised a family and was a wonderfully devoted mother to her three children, Joel Marshall, Jessica Sanderson and Sarah Grano, and grandmother to her four grandchildren. She was an avid reader and world-traveler with a passion for history, language and culture. Her other passions included going to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, attending Rush Creek Baptist Church and enjoying her beloved dog, Tux. She will be terribly missed by the many people who loved her dearly.