Sharon Rapoport

I grew up right here in Big Lick — in South Roanoke. I went to North Cross School and couldn’t wait to make it in the world once I graduated, so I went to college in Georgia, started my career in advertising in Atlanta and ended-up in Manhattan by my mid-twenties. I thought I would stay for 3 years and ended up staying for 18. After the high glamour of working for large agencies and having a campaign on the Super Bowl, I met my husband John Anderson, originally from Parkersburg, WV, and we started our own company called The Farm. We moved to Westchester County when we had our 2 sons, Seth & Isaac, and were doing fine until January 2001 when I was diagnosed with aggressive Breast Cancer. As if that wasn’t bad enough, my last day of chemo was Sept. 12, 2001. Being away from family was difficult when our lives were so traumatically touched by the events of that year. We were already working somewhat virtually through the internet, so we decided to pick up and move to Roanoke in January 2003. Though we still have an office in Manhattan and visit often, we have made a smooth transition to the easy lifestyle Roanoke has to offer and have made incredible friendships here. Our kids absolutely adore it, they actually KNOW their grandparents, and their lives are so much less stressful than those of their New York friends. Besides…you can’t beat the lack of traffic and the low cost of pretty much everything!

• Sharon’s Hometown: Roanoke, VA
• Sharon’s Company: Creative Director, The Farm