Keith and Sharon Soles when they were dating in 1988. The couple married in 1999.

Photograph courtesy of Sharon Soles.

Sharon Soles' vivacious personality is complimented by the glamour and vibrancy of her dress. She always wears multiple gold rings, necklaces and bracelets. Her nails are professionally manicured and polished, and she sports a year-round tan. Sharon has a definite sense of fashion and herself and has no problem expressing strong opinions and preferences to anyone.

She never shies away from any controversy, especially if it involves whether Andy Warhol was born and reared in McKeesport, always arguing passionately on the side of the affirmative.

You will find Sharon, who calls herself a "downtown McKeesport girl," at the McKeesport Daily News building serving dually as the Tube City Center operations assistant and the Mon Valley Independent newspaper's McKeesport office manager during the week. She has a jewelry kiosk, SNOOKS, at The Lincoln Highway Hub and she and her husband, Keith Soles, are part owners of the TKO Gyros, Fries & More restaurant on Walnut Street.

 She dedicates any spare time that she has to various local charities and nonprofit organizations including the McKeesport History and Heritage Center, where she is on the board of directors, the McKeesport Lions and Kiwanis clubs, the McKeesport Trail Council, and others. She coordinates the gate coverage at McKeesport's International Village, an annual ethnic heritage festival.

Sharon participated in the 2014 GTECH Strategies’ ReClaim McKeesport ambassador program, taking on the project of beautifying the vacant lot adjacent to the McKees Point Palisades.

 She always has a wad of tickets to sell to raise funds for one of the organizations that she enthusiastically supports and never hesitates to help with any worthy cause that will benefit the McKeesport community.

Sharon was born in Morgantown, W.Va., while her family was traveling. She lived with her parents, Carmella (Nellie) and John Dobos, in several homes within walking distance of the then bustling downtown McKeesport until age six when they moved to North Versailles. She said her family lived "all over downtown McKeesport" during those first six years.

"We lived on Water Street, Tube Works Alley, and Vick Street before we moved to the country," she said. "I loved it. There were so many kids around and we had so much fun. We could do anything we wanted to do."

Sharon Soles with her younger sisters Paula Roadman (left) and Theresa Wallace (center) at a party earlier this year.

Photograph courtesy of Sharon Soles

Spending so much of her childhood in McKeesport gave her an everlasting love for the town. Sharon's Slovak grandmother lived on Hazel Street near the McKeesport Hospital, now UPMC McKeesport, and she had a lot of family on nearby White Street too. She and her family regularly attended St. Nicholas Church in McKeesport.

Sharon went to first grade at the Sunset Elementary School in North Versailles and briefly attended St. Robert Bellarmine in East McKeesport before transferring to St. Peter’s, an all-girls elementary and high school on Market Street in McKeesport. She left St. Peter's in 11th grade to finish at Westinghouse Memorial High School in Wilmerding.

“My friends and I were tired of going to an all-girls school, so we skipped school and got caught,” she recalled, remembering her disappointment at not being able to attend McKeesport High School. 

 Sharon and her friends rode the bus into McKeesport to go to the city’s four theaters and to shop at the many clothing stores. She especially remembers the grandeur of the John P. Harris Memorial Theater with its magnificent architecture, marble floors, statuary, and red velvet drapes, comparing it to a palace.

“We took the city bus all the time because we came downtown McKeesport to all the movie theaters and to shop,” she said. "There were so many kids and that's what we did. Life was so different back then. Everything was so easy, and people were so nice. And everybody was so friendly.”

Her love of the Mon Valley is deeply rooted in her upbringing. Sharon's commitment to improving her community came from her mother, Nellie, a long-time North Versailles Township commissioner who was police commissioner until a couple years before she died at 89.

"I had the most wonderful parents in the world,” she said.

Sharon's dad was given the nickname Scrappy after a cartoon character who, like him, had a lock of dark, curly hair in the middle of his forehead. He became known as Fingers in later years because of his ability to spin a baseball. She put his nicknames in his obituary when he died at 73 because "down at the mill, nobody knew his first name." He was, according to Sharon, an "all-around athlete and a wonderful man" who was her mother’s bodyguard at public events.

"She'd have all these big political rallies and stuff, and dad would be out there dancing with everybody. If you're in a wheelchair, he’s spinning you around. He was the nicest guy in the world."

Sharon, who had a scholarship to attend beauty school after graduation, jokingly refers to herself as a "beauty school dropout." Instead, she took off with a group of about 30 friends to spend the first two summers after high school graduation working in Atlantic City, an early indication of her adventuresome spirit.

 Later, she attended the Community College of Allegheny County campus in McKeesport and enrolled at Penn State Harrisburg, focusing on her love of photography.

Sharon met her husband Keith when she was a jewelry department manager at the Eastland Gimbels store, and he was her stock boy. Sharon and Keith, a McKeesport real estate agent, business owner, and four-term member of McKeesport City Council, have been married for 24 years and have known each other for 45 years.

She worked at Gimbels until the store closed in 1987.

She was transferred by Marcus and Company, a jeweler owned by Gimbels, to New York City for three months to assist in the closure of Gimbel stores in the United States.

She was transferred to New Jersey where she continued to work for the company for almost a year. She learned the art of jewelry repair, a hobby she still enjoys, while working in New York. Sharon said that she was always "thrilled to return home" to McKeesport from her travels.

She developed an avid love of jewelry and fashion at a young age. She talks about going around to her Slovak grandmother's neighbors' homes as a child, asking if anyone had jewelry to get rid of. And, of course, they did.

Sharon demonstrates dedication, a strong work ethic, grit, and an unwavering commitment to her community every day through her good works and willingness to do whatever she can to promote and improve McKeesport. She is a genuine Mon Valley person.

- Peg Luketic