Colleen Sharkey Riehm
Colleen was born in Reno, NV at St. Mary’s Hospital to Jack and Bernie Sharkey on October 10, 1946. She was the fifth of six children and welcomed by her brothers and sister.
Colleen left us on October 18, 2024, at the same hospital where she was born, 76 years and 1 week earlier. She had spent many weeks in the hospital.
Growing up in a large family made for a chaotic, adventurous, loud, fun, wonderful, and memorable time in early Reno days. We have so many family memories and no end of stories that we will share about Colleen and our growing up.
She attended schools in Reno, including receiving her degree in Accounting at the University of Nevada, Reno and worked her way through school. She has many life-long friends from her college days. During this time she met her future husband, Peter Riehm in Reno where he was attending flight school to become an airline pilot.
They were married on February 4, 1970 in Margate, New Jersey.
They moved to Nome, AK in 1975 where Pete flew as a bush pilot and Colleen worked as an accountant. They left Alaska in 1985 and moved to Utah where Pete was an airline Captain for Evergreen Airlines and Colleen worked as an accountant. They moved to Winnemucca, NV in 2000 when Pete retired.
Colleen met friends wherever she went. She still has many close friends in all the places she lived. She was an especially great cousin to large families on both our mother and father's sides. She always was the family member who kept up with all the relatives. She loved family reunions, and made the most amazing photo collages to display showing the previous gatherings. My children always referred to her as "part grown-up, part kid". She was the life-of-the-party family member.
Colleen was generous in every way. She lived her faith and never met someone she would not help. She had a list of people she prayed for and that list grew every day. She volunteered with her Food Bank, her community service center, her church, St. Paul's Catholic Church in Winnemucca, her Altar Society, and her County Fair. She loved the small-town life and became friends with a great many people in Winnemucca, while still keeping in touch with family and friends with calls and letters. She crocheted so many gifts for new babies of family and friends.
Colleen is preceded in death by her parents, Bernie and Jack, her husband, Pete, her brother, Tim Sharkey, and her sister-in-law Donna Sharkey. She is survived by her siblings: Shirley (Toby) Isler, Jack Sharkey, Chuck (Jill) Sharkey, Mary Ann Sharkey (Tim's widow), and Jim (Michelle) Sharkey. She is also survived by Pete's sisters: Dorothy, Mary, Jane and Susie. Colleen leaves many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.
A small graveside service will be held in Reno where she will be buried at Our Mother of Sorrows Cemetery.
A service will be held in Winnemucca at a later date.
We thank everyone who sent get-well cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards. Each day we see how far-reaching our sister's kindness was. If you wish to honor our sister, donate to your favorite charity. Also, you could volunteer, try a new recipe, plant flowers, have lunch with friends, call or write your friends and family, go camping, read. These were some of Colleen's favorite things.