Sharon Locke MacCartney, of Peterborough, NH, died at her home on June 21, 2026 at age 96. She leaves her beloved children (the lights of her life): Leslie (Gordon), Jim (Tina), Doug (Joanne), and Bill (Destiny), and her grandchildren: Ava, Ian, and Odin.

She was predeceased by her parents, Walter and Paulyne (Sweet) Locke, her brother Bill, a son John, and grandchildren Sarah and Christopher, as well as her former husband of thirty years, Louis McEwan MacCartney.

Sharon was a lifelong lover of books, libraries and learning. She was a graduate of Middlebury College, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Franklin Pierce College. Her graduation ceremony at Harvard, in 1955, included the first Honorary degree ever awarded by Harvard University to a woman: Helen Keller. When Sharon graduated in 2005 from Franklin Pierce College, it was… ‘just because’ …the courses had been available and Sharon decided to take them for credit - giving her a second B.A. degree. Sharon worked at Franklin Pierce for 25 years as Administrative Assistant in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division. She retired in 2015, at age 85.

Sharon had a zest for living. She took special delight in: the crisp, cool, colorful months of September and October, clouds, thunderstorms in the night, all the varied sounds of water, sandy deserted beaches, Smooth Ledge Point in Maine, giraffes, sunsets, Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings, strawberry-rhubarb pie, her beloved blue kayak, and a prayer for daybreak by Mary B Edgerly, “Teach me O God, how to take the gift of a day, and give it back to you - radiant in faith, spontaneous in joy, and rich in service.”

She treasured her family; her special friends of the heart; Lou’s distantly-related, but closely-held Pero-Penney-Wickwire-Cronin clan who remained part of Sharon’s “family” for the rest of her life; her Companions in The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross; her churches (Emmanuel and All Saints’); and the place she called home, Peterborough, New Hampshire.

In Sharon’s 1948 high school yearbook, she stated as her Ambition: “To live in New England.” She happily lived her entire adult life in New England. Her final move was in 1984 - to Peterborough: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (“Grover's Corners”). Fitting given the influence of the play in Sharon’s life, especially these lines:

Emily: “Oh earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you. . . . Do any human beings ever realize life as they live it - every, every minute?”

Stage Manager: “No.” . . . “The saints and poets, maybe they do - some.”

A celebration of Sharon’s life will be held at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 51 Concord St. Peterborough, NH 03458 on September 27th at 2pm with a reception to follow. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to All Saints’ Church (address above), Emmanuel Episcopal Church, PO Box 30, Dublin, NH, 03444 or BAYADA Hospice, 1222 Putney Rd., Suite 107, Brattleboro, VT 05301