Book Notes 8.6.20: Sharron Ann Sibley tells her rags-to-riches story

Book Notes 8.6.20: Sharron Ann Sibley tells her rags-to-riches story

By Glenn Dromgoole

 

Sharron Ann Sibley, a high school beauty queen who expected to live a happy life as a wife and mother, pulls no punches in her autobiography titled Men, Money & Gypsy Blood: A Memoir of Love, Survival, and My Rise to Wall Street ($24.95 paperback).

Unlike most autobiographies, Sibley’s is told in third person rather than first person. Instead of “I did such-and-such,” she says “Sharron Ann did such-and-such.” It takes a little getting used to, but it works fine.

Her story revolves around the men in her life, beginning with her father, respected Abilene physician Dr. Dub Sibley, who passed away in 2011. She dedicates the book to him.

Her first lover was an Abilene High football star — and she would love him the rest of his life, even when she was married to her first two husbands.

Those marriages ended in divorce and bankruptcy, and she struggled for several years just to pay the bills and feed her two boys.

With a lot of hard work – and good advice from her second cousin, another important man in her life – Sibley made a lucrative career with her Dallas brokerage firm.

She was happily married two more times – to her old high school boyfriend and to a wealthy investor she called the General – and both of those successful unions ended with their deaths. They are buried in Buffalo Gap, with a space between them reserved for her.

Sibley says her story was one of “rags to riches. Only instead of marrying a prince, she’d done it all on her own… Every dollar she made, she had earned out of dedication, hard work, and perseverance… She was a woman who didn’t just break the glass ceiling: she’d shattered it.”

Autographed copies of Sibley’s story are available at Texas Star Trading Company.