Appointed – June 16, 1914
End of Watch – June 14, 1937
Officer Georgianna Sharrot was struck by a car as she crossed the street at Lyndale and Franklin Avenues on January 31, 1937. She died from her injuries four and 1/2 months later on June 14, 1937 at the age of 67.
Officer Sharrot was born in New York City on September 21, 1869. She moved to Minneapolis in 1908 and took a supervisor position in the nursery at the Pillsbury Settlement House. In 1911, she moved to the countryside near the South Dakota border where she served as a house matron at a boy’s agricultural school. Officer Sharrot moved back to Minneapolis in 1912 and worked for the Juvenile Protective League.
Upon recommendation of both the Juvenile Protective and the Women’s Welfare Leagues she was appointed by the Mayor to the Minneapolis Police Department on June 16, 1914. She was designated a “street mother” and was assigned duty as an advisor to children and young persons up to the age of 17.
Officer Sharrot was very well known not only in Minneapolis but also around the world having been a Secretary of the International Policewomen’s Association and the President of its Minnesota and Northwest Division.
Officer Sharrott lived at 5309 Columbus Avenue South. She was buried at Lakewood Cemetery on June 16, 1937. She was a widow and was survived by her grown son and daughter and their families.
Officer Sharrot was the fourth woman law enforcement officer to have been killed in the line of duty in the United States.
Source – True Heroines: Police Women Killed in the Line of Duty Throughout the United States by William Wilbanks
Photograph courtesy of www.odmp.org