Sharon Bargreen Blunt could have run a business. She had the skills and talents, say those who knew her best. Instead, she put her prodigious energy and her heart into family, friends and community.
“My mom was the ultimate mom,” said Greg Blunt, one of Sharon Blunt’s five children.
“It wouldn’t matter if we brought home two or 20 kids, she would fix a huge meal for everybody,” said Gigi Burke, one of her three daughters. “She was always very spontaneous, that was her way of showing love. She took care of everybody.”
Sharon Bargreen Blunt died Jan. 12. She was 74. Everett was her lifelong home, and she left a legacy of volunteerism.
She was one of the founders of the Assistance League’s Operation School Bell, which provides clothing to children in need, and of the Kidney Auxiliary of Puget Sound.
She was born March 22, 1933, to Grace and Howard S. Bargreen. Her father was once a state senator. The family lived on Rucker Hill, where the street Sharon Crest bears her name. The family’s history in Everett is long. Her forebears founded the Bargreen Coffee Co. in 1898. In the 1930s, the family started Crown Distributing Co., a distributor of beer and other beverages.
Howie Bargreen, Sharon’s brother, said that as a girl his sister worked at the Bargreen Coffee Co. in the summertime. His father once decided to try marketing a liquid instant coffee, he said, and Sharon took it around to stores.
“She was a very good salesperson,” Howie Bargreen said. “My dad always said she was the best looking, and the best business person.”
Business wasn’t in her future. At the University of Washington, where she was a member of the Tri Delta sorority, she met her husband-to-be, Kim Blunt.
“I was in my senior year, she was in her junior year. We met in February and married in October. It was 1954,” Kim Blunt said. “We were married 53 years.”
He was from Seattle, but after serving in the Air Force he settled with his wife in Everett, where they put down deep roots. Kim Blunt worked for a time in radio before going to work for Crown Distributing, where he worked 40 years before retiring.
Sharon Bargreen Blunt is survived by her husband, Kim Blunt; her mother Grace Bargreen Parsons; her brother Howie Bargreen; children Kim Larsen and her husband, Larry; Greg Blunt and his wife, Jill; Melissa Stephanson; Gigi Burke and her husband, Cory; and Bob Blunt, and his wife, Sarah. Also by grandchildren Chris, Dan, Mitchell and Stacie Larsen; Jessie, Meagan and Molly Stephanson; Emily and Sam Burke; and Kaullen Blunt.
“She was a great mom, and just an awesome grandma,” said Melissa Stephanson. “One thing that was really special, she bought all the kids their letter jackets.”
Stephanson remembers that every Christmas Eve, her parents hosted a huge party. “We had the whole city over here,” she said.
She and Burke recalled their mom as their Campfire leader. They share memories of helping in the Assistance League thrift shop, which before its move to Evergreen Way had a storefront in downtown Everett. “Gigi was raised in that store window, that was her playpen,” Stephanson said.
“Her spare time was usually charity work. And she loved to read, she could read all night. She also loved cookbooks. She was a great cook,” Stephanson said.
Burke finds it remarkable that in 53 years of marriage, “my parents only were apart a handful of nights.”
“My dad traveled a lot for the company, and my mom always went — and there were five kids at home,” Burke said.
Greg Blunt, who lived out of state for a time, is gratified that he spent the past few years close to his parents. Although his mother was in poor health, “she went through all that and never complained, never around us,” he said.
Burke said her mother’s friendships were nearly as important to her as family. “She still got together with her sorority sisters and friends from childhood,” Burke said. “That was something I really admired.”
Kim Blunt said about 10 of his wife’s friends had what they called the Birthday Club. “They celebrated birthdays every month,” he said.
“I think she felt she had lived a fortunate life,” Burke said of her mother. “She wanted to give back to the community. She grew up in Everett and had a passion for it, especially for the kids.”
Reporter Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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