Sharon Ann Wehrly

Sharon Ann Wehrly died peacefully, surrounded by her family on December 14, 2023. 

Sharon was born a Cherokee Citizen on August 08, 1944, to Dana Mae and James Swor.  She was adopted when she was very young by her stepfather, Billy R. Whitlock.  Her father Billy was in the U.S. Navy, and she lived in many different places with her mother Dana and father to include Japan.  While there, she learned many Japanese customs and was part of an integrated elementary school project, sharing education with Japanese students twice a week.  They eventually landed in Mount Vernon, Washington, where she graduated high school in 1962.  She attended Old Dominion College, with the intent of becoming an educator.  She went to visit her mother Dana, who had just moved to Beatty, Nevada and bought the South Seas Bar (now known as the Sour Dough Bar). While there she met a cowboy who was a Nye County Deputy by the name of Dean.  He was stationed at what was then known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS).  In 1965 they moved to a small farming community known as Pahrump Valley, where they started a family.  In 1972 they divorced, and Sharon found herself a single parent, raising two very young children named George and John.  During that time, she began working as a sworn Special Deputy Sheriff with the resident Deputy Sheriff by the name of Ed Siri.  In 1975 she took a job at the NTS as a Security Inspector.  Later, her career would take her to do Emergency Management, that included many projects at the D.A.F.T., all the time being a Nye County Reserve Deputy.  She was mentored by 7 different Sheriffs.  When she retired from the NTS, she was hired as an investigator for the Nye County District Attorney's Office and kept that position until she was elected to the Office of Nye County Sheriff in 2014.  She held that position until 2023.  During her tenure, she implemented many changes that saved the Nye County taxpayers money and implemented policies and procedures in the department that brought them up to Federal Standards in the Nye County Detention Centers. This enabled her to reopen the Nye County Detention Center in Tonopah, Nevada.  This also enabled her to obtain and secure an I.C.E. contract, which enabled her to create more Law Enforcement and support staff jobs in Nye County without cost to the Nye County taxpayers. 

Sharon's philanthropy for helping others was also paramount in her life.  She volunteered and supported several non-profits that included the "Bob Baker's Wild West Extravaganza", Zelzah Shriners in Las Vegas, Soroptimist Club International-Pahrump, the Pahrump Museum, the Order of the Eastern Star, and was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, Disabled American Veterans, and Moose Lodge #808 Pahrump Nevada.

Services will be held on January 05, 2024, at 1:00pm at the Pahrump Golden Nugget, 681 S. Highway 160, Pahrump, Nevada, 89048.  A procession to the Chief Tecopa Cemetery, located at 751 East St, Pahrump, Nevada, 89048, will immediately follow.

In Lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her name to:  Shriners Hospital for Children at www.shrinerschildrens. org/en/giving, Zelzah Shrine Center Transportation Fund at (702) 382-5554, or Soroptimist International-Pahrump Valley at (775) 764-1261

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