Margaret Sharp, unsung heroine

LEGENDARY drug crusader C.B. Kimmins was outside his church, St. Peter's, at 5th Street and Girard Avenue about 20 years ago when three women, including Margaret Alice Sharp, and a man approached him.

They were devotees of St. John Neumann, whose tomb is at St. Peter's, and went there frequently to pray at Neumann's shrine.

Kimmins had seen them before and they had seen him and knew of his work fighting the drug scourge in the city. They went up to him and asked how they could help.

Kimmins is never in the position of turning anybody down, and, in fact, he recognized that these ordinary looking folk, two of the women hobbling on canes, fit in perfectly with his major tactic against the dealers.

He accepted their offer of help, and so Margaret Alice Sharp, her sister, Ann Marie Sharp, their brother, John, and Clara Abele, joined with Kimmins in his unique approach to fighting the drug trade.

The tactic is simple. These small groups, mostly of women, take up positions at places where drugs are sold, in Kensington, Germantown, South Philadelphia, wherever, and stand there, buffeted by both the weather and the nasty taunts and threats from the dealers, a frail but powerful - and largely unsung - front in the war on narcotics.

Margaret Sharp, who walked with a cane because of a lifelong heart condition but who stood tall against the demons of the drug trade, died Nov. 3. She was 66 and lived in Mayfair.

Her brother, John, who also braved the torments of weather and the dealers, died April 12 at age 72.

Kimmins encourages his people to gather on the drug streets in summer heat and winter cold, braving rain, sleet and snow, to interrupt sales of the drug poison.

It drives the dealers crazy. Nothing works against these people who just stand there and get in their way. Nothing seems to faze them, not taunts, not threats.

There is nothing for the dealers to do but walk away.

Margaret Sharp was often afraid, but with the support of C.B. Kimmins and other leaders of the anti-drug crusade, she stood her ground, throwing her frail physique against the monsters of the drug trade.

These demonstrations also encourage the neighbors. Their fear of the dealers evaporates when they see them back away from a group of mothers and grandmothers.

One of the biggest supporters of Kimmins' tactics was the late Chief Inspector Ray Rooney, head of the police narcotics unit.

"Ray would come out with us," Kimmins said. "He loved it. He was amazed at how the dealers would back down from these women."

Kimmins remembers one 90-plus-degree day when the little group was standing at B Street and Indiana Avenue when the dealers were telling them, "You better get out of here. It's not safe for you here."

As was typical when the small band would begin to waver, C.B. would step in and tell them, "Don't be afraid of them. Hold your ground. They're full of crap."

"I had to get them to trust me," he said.

Another time, when occupants of a drug house in South Philadelphia threatened to throw water on the group, they removed their watches and other valuables and prepared for a soaking. Of course, the water never came.

"We prevailed," Kimmins exulted.

Margaret was born in Philadelphia to John Sharp Sr. and the former Theresa Adams. She graduated from Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls.

"She was a good-hearted person," said her sister, Ann Marie, now 62. "She always wanted to help people."

Her sister is her only survivor.

Services: Funeral Mass 10 a.m. Nov. 18 at St. Joachim's Church, 1527 Church St. Burial will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham.

Donations in her name may be made to Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls, 1000 W. Lycoming St., Philadelphia 19140-2199. *