Sharon Lee Percy Rockefeller (born December 10, 1944) is the wife of former West Virginia Senator John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV and served as that state's First Lady from 1977 to 1985. On November 21, 2019, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump.

Life

Rockefeller was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, on December 10, 1944, a twin daughter of Senator Charles Harting Percy (1919—2011) and Jeanne Valerie Dickerson, who died in 1947. She earned a Bachelor's degree at Stanford University and later studied at Morris Harvey College and

West Virginia Wesleyan College West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...

. Her twin sister Valerie was murdered in 1966 at the family home by a mysterious intruder. Sharon married John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born 1937) in 1967. He is the son of John Davison Rockefeller III (1906—1978) and

Blanchette Ferry Hooker Blanchette Ferry Rockefeller (née Hooker; October 2, 1909 – November 29, 1992) was an American art sponsor, twice president of the Museum of Modern Art, and wife of John D. Rockefeller III and mother of Jay Rockefeller. Biography Blanchette ...

(1909—1992) of the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brot ...

. She and Jay have four children and seven grandchildren. In 2005 Percy Rockefeller was diagnosed with colon cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Her cancer has since

metastasized Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

in the bones. Her experience prompted her to convince film maker Ken Burns to produce the 2015 documentary ''Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies''. It is adapted from the book of the same name by

Siddhartha Mukherjee Siddhartha Mukherjee (born 21 July 1970) is an Indian-American physician, biologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, '' The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'', that won notable literary prizes including the 2011 Pu ...

. The Rockefellers live in the Northwest district of

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

and retain their permanent residence in Charleston, West Virginia."West Virginia's First Ladies," West Virginia Division of Culture and History, June 2007.

Career

As First Lady of West Virginia, Rockefeller promoted the Public Broadcasting Service, helped establish a centralized system to assist mentally disabled children, and founded Mountain Artisans, a quilting business for low-income artisans. She also campaigned to lower utility costs and to improve care for the elderly. After Jay was elected to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in 1985, she became

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

WETA-TV WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share stud ...

in Washington, D.C. She later became chairwoman of the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

. She is a former member of the Steering Committee of the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defi ...

. She has also been the chairperson of the National Gallery of Art.

References

External links

Sharon Percy Rockefeller biography, WETA

Sharon Percy Rockefeller Profile - Forbes.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rockefeller, Sharon Percy 1944 births Living people American women chief executives American media executives First Ladies and Gentlemen of West Virginia National Gallery of Art Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group People from Charleston, West Virginia People from Chicago Businesspeople from Oakland, California Rockefeller family Stanford University alumni National Humanities Medal recipients American twins George Washington University trustees Morris Harvey College alumni California Democrats United States National Medal of Arts recipients