Obituary

Sharon (Myatt) Van Dyke was born in 1939 to Opal and Wayne Myatt who lived in Bellingham, WA. She grew up the middle child with an older sister Carolyn and younger brother, Larry. Pictures from those years show her wearing a crocheted dress made by her grandma Bessie Myatt, riding a scooter and standing in front of the family’s home/Mercantile Store in Laurel, Washington.

She attended Bellingham High School. One week after receiving her high school diploma, she walked down the aisle of First Baptist Church, Ferndale, WA. wearing a gown she’d sewn herself, and pledged herself to the equally young Barry Van Dyke.

Sharon and Barry’s marriage lasted 12 years and resulted in the births of four children, Mary Louise Van Dyke, Mark Van Dyke, Brian Van Dyke and Suzanne (Van Dyke) Hansen.

As a single mother, Sharon faced overwhelming challenges in raising four lively and determined youngsters on a slim budget, although her parents and faith in God helped her. She loved listening to musical favorites that included “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel and Karen Carpenter’s “Rainy Days and Mondays.”

She purchased a 3-bedroom home in Laurel, attended classes on bookkeeping and worked for the City of Bellingham, Bellingham Yacht Club and two other companies.

In 1974 she experienced a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for a time.

With three of her children raised, Sharon travelled to Hawaii with her youngest daughter and later made trips to England, Scotland and Germany. She attended church regularly on Sundays and read her Bible.

She enjoyed dining out and visiting with her children and grandchildren and later great grandchildren. Sharon spent 20-plus years tracking her family’s genealogy that stretched back to medieval times. She kept extensive records of those findings, and in the mid-1990s she visited Maquoketa, Iowa and visited the gravesite of her emigrant 2x great grandfather there.

She enjoyed shopping and her purchases – clothing, furnishings and dishes crafted at the Mayott family factory in England – overflowed the Laurel house. She later moved to a 2-bedroom condo in Bellingham near her dad’s home and attended Northwest Baptist Church.

In her sunset years she was diagnosed with dementia and was cared for at HomePlace in Burlington, WA. She passed away after a short illness on February 16, 2025, and will be buried near her parents at Greenacres Memorial Park, Ferndale, WA.