Ps. 118:23. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
On Sunday evening, March 10, 2024, Sharon Kay Johnson Crowder, of Huntsville AL, entered the presence of her Lord and Savior, which is “marvelous in our eyes.”
Sharon was born on March 9, 1942, to Leslie and Lois Johnson of Caldwell, Idaho. The youngest of three children, Sharon graduated in 1960 from Caldwell High School. On February 5, 1961, Sharon became the beloved wife of Roger Atlas Crowder. God blessed their family with two daughters. After a short stint as a Navy wife, God moved their family to Fremont, MI where they were active at First Baptist Church of Fremont.
In 1973, God moved the family again to Greenville, SC, where Sharon’s husband, Roger, prepared for a preaching ministry. After four years in SC, they moved to Illinois where she faithfully served alongside her husband as a pastor’s wife. After seven years of ministering in Paris, IL, God chose them to serve Him in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Sharon faithfully served with her husband in Brazil for almost 28 years. At the age of 43, she learned a new language, taught children’s Sunday School classes, helped homeschool the missionary children, and was the consummate hostess for the church congregation and visiting pastors, friends, and other missionaries.
After retiring from the ministry in Brazil in 2012, she began, with Roger, a ministry to other missionaries around the world as furlough replacements. These places included the Philippines, Cape Verde, Argentina, Brazil, and ending in Scotland. She returned to Huntsville in 2016 where they became actively involved in the missions program at Calvary Baptist Church in Huntsville.
Sharon lived out the love of the Lord in her life by loving others. She was known at the church as one who deeply cared for others, always asking questions about family members, entertaining people in her home, and praying for others. She had a way of making each person she talked to feel special and loved. She was a wonderful wife, a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. She selflessly gave of herself in all these relationships.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Leslie and Lois Johnson, and her two siblings.
She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Roger Crowder; daughters, Shelley (Tim) Schimkus of Virginia and Kelley (Mark) Ballard of Pennsylvania. She leaves a heritage “that is the Lord’s doing” of love and faith in Christ, five grandchildren, Abigail Rose, Bethany Rose, Susannah Schimkus, Richard Schimkus, Amelia Rolle, and six great-grandchildren.
The memorial service will be held Saturday, March 23, at 2 pm at Calvary Baptist Church, 126 Douglass Road NW, Huntsville, AL. Dr. Jeremiah Cochran and Dr. Greg McLaughlin will be officiating. The family will receive friends an hour before the service.
In memory of Sharon, donations can be made to Calvary Baptist Church Mission Fund care of Mike Ring for Brazilian ministries.
Hazel Green Funeral Home is honored to serve the family.
