People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Shannon McGee
- A volunteer with the Mesa County Oral History Project.
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- Shannon Robinson
- She was born in a Florence Crittenton home for unwed mothers in Denver. Her mother is Wendy Robinson, a jack-of-all-trades and IT worker. Her father was Floyd Herschel Roberson, a truck driver. Wendy Robinson was one of the early members of the Rainbow Coalition in Denver. On her mother’s side, Shannon Robinson comes from a family of Western Slope pioneers. Her great-grandfather was a state game warden and ran the Crystal River fish hatchery in the 1940’s, and Kenney Reservoir is named for his family’s homestead. Miss Robinson’s grandfather was aboard the USS Enterprise during World War II, and received honors for his bravery after the ship was hit by a torpedo. He later suffered from shell shock related to the incident. After the war, he was injured while working on the Glen Canyon Dam. He and his wife owned a gas station in Carbondale before moving to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1956. In Grand Junction, he was an alfalfa farmer. Her grandmother was a bank teller. Wendy Robinson graduated from Mesa County’s Central High School, where she was the prom queen. While still a teenager she dated Floyd Roberson, an African-American who later became Shannon’s father. They faced violence for being an interracial couple in Grand Junction in the 1960’s. Shannon Robinson went to Kindergarten in Gunnison, Colorado and was the first African-American student to attend her elementary school. She experienced help and solidarity from Black players on the Western State College football team, and friendship from a few white students, but was largely shunned or bullied by others. The family briefly moved to Clifton during her first-grade year. She attended Clifton Elementary School and lived near the intersection of 32 and E Roads. There, she enjoyed spending time outdoors and playing around the canals. Before second grade, she and her mother moved to Aurora, Colorado. They lived near the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Galena Street, in an apartment complex where she made friends with other Black children. She attended Crawford Elementary School. The family later moved to what Miss Robinson refers to as a “nicer” part of town. Though her middle school’s student body had a good mix of ethnic backgrounds, she was often victimized by white, Black, and Latino girls who made fun of her or attacked her because she was mixed-race or because of gender ambiguity. When she was around twelve years old, she incidentally met her half-brother Travis during a shopping trip in Grand Junction. Miss Robinson’s aunt arranged for her to stay in town longer so that she could get to know her brother. During that time, she also came to know Josephine Dickey, whom Miss Robinson calls Grandma Dickey. At the age of fourteen in Aurora, she dropped out of school, got a fake id, and began working at Taco Bell. She first met her father when he was a customer waiting in line while she was working the register. He became involved in her life briefly, and brought her to Grand Junction to stay with him for what she calls her first Black Christmas. During this time, she also got to know her grandparents Oliver and Estella Roberson, a farmer and a homemaker. She later became estranged from her father. As a teenager, she became introduced to the hardcore punk scene after going to a Denver club called Scooters that hosted a new wave night. She attended punk shows at the Turnverein and went to Muddy’s. She fixed up old Vespa scooters and began riding with SHARPs (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice), an involvement that she credits with awakening her “adultish activism.” With her new friends she went to The Grove, Thirsty’s, Rock Island (where she later worked), and the Packing House. She also shopped at Fashion Disaster. She found allies in the punk scene and fought against prejudice. She worked as a cocktail waitress in bars around Denver and then at City Spirit Café as a hostess. She also worked as a go-go dancer at 23 Parish and Rock Island. She took part in the nascent rave scene as part of the street team and as a review writer in The Seed, and then took up DJing as a dare. At that time, she squatted in the attic of an old Victorian house on 13th and Race, where she had to exit and enter by the fire escape. She left Denver in 1994 after her friend was killed in the city’s growing gang violence epidemic, and to get away from bad personal habits. With her boyfriend (later her common-law spouse) she moved to Phoenix so that he could work as a chef in a new restaurant opened by his sister and brother-in-law, Chris Bianco. There, they lived with her boyfriend’s mom. Robinson worked as a transcriber and office assistant. With her boyfriend Patrick (later her common-law spouse) she moved to Phoenix so that he could work as a chef in a new restaurant opened by his sister and brother-in-law, Chris Bianco. There, they lived with Patrick’s mom. Robinson worked as a transcriber and office assistant for her mother-in-law. She also worked as a florist and floral arranger, both for established florists and on her own. She had two children with her husband and stayed in Phoenix until 2003. She left with her children to escape an abusive relationship. She moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. She lived with her grandmother and attended Mesa State College beginning in Spring 2004 (now Colorado Mesa University). She also worked at the Botanical Gardens. At Mesa State, she took courses in philosophy and marketing and worked as an assistant for Professor Martina Keck. She became acquainted with student government and ran the campaigns of two fellow students. She became the college’s student director of internal affairs. Through student government, she also was involved in World Aids Day demonstrations and AIDS activism with the Western Colorado AIDS Project (she later became prevention coordinator and then interim director for the AIDS Project). She was elected President of student government, with Juan Chavez from the Mesa State football team as the vice president. With Jay Bishop, Anthony Clark and others, she formed Right & Wrong in the wake of 2020’s nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The group organized a large march on Grand Junction’s city council that was effective in initiating change or conversation on a host of issues relevant to Grand Junction’s African-American community. The group also organized a Juneteenth celebration in Lincoln Park, continued to attend city council meetings, and held a vigil for the death of Elijah Mccain (shot by Aurora, Colorado police). She now lives in Grand Junction, where she is a grassroots community activist and enjoys cooking soul food.
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- Sharkey Moore
- Sharkey Moore was an old horse trader who tried to work out a deal with Kenneth Thompson of Glade Park, Colorado.
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- Sharon (Martinez) Stetson
- Sharon (Martinez) Stetson was born on September 20th, 1943 in Boulder, Colorado. She attended Lafayette Elementary School and Lafayette High School. As of 2024, Sharon and her husband have been married sixty-two years and have three children, all of whom were raised in Lafayette. In 1989, Sharon was sworn in as city councilperson of Lafayette, making her the first Latino government official in Lafayette’s history. Her immense public service work includes grant funding projects with the Colorado Municipal League and creation of the Healthy Communities Initiative. Her work has significantly influenced the development of Lafayette’s public outdoor spaces, the Bob L. Burger Recreation Center, and the preservation of Latino history in Boulder County.