Sharry Konopski Bio
Sharry Konopski, born Sharry Lynn Konopski, was an American model and actress also known as Sharry DeBolt. She was born on December 2, 1967, in Longview, Washington, and died on August 25, 2017, aged 49.
Konopski was named Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for August 1987. She was 19 years old when her pictorial appeared in the magazine.
Sharry Konopski was 5 feet 2 inches (157 cm) tall and had blond hair and blue eyes. Her published Playboy measurements were 32-22-34 inches (82-55-87 cm).
Hosted at the famed Playboy Mansion, she was quickly embraced by readers and fans across the country. Back in her hometown, long lines formed for a chance to meet her and collect an autograph across her centerfold. That appearance didn't just make her famous - it fulfilled a personal dream. "Playboy's in the past. I did my dream," Sharry reflected years later. Modeling had always been her passion, and Playboy gave her the platform to live it fully.
But Sharry's story didn't end there - and it took a tragic turn that would test her spirit in unimaginable ways.
On April 1, 1995, while driving along Spirit Lake Memorial Highway near her home in Silverlake, Cowlitz County, Sharry swerved to avoid three deer that darted into the road. Her Ford Mustang flipped, and in the violent crash, she suffered devastating injuries: two shattered vertebrae, a punctured lung, several broken ribs, and permanent damage to her spinal cord. At just 27 years old, she was paralyzed from the waist down and told she would never walk again.
With steel rods implanted in her back and the challenges of paraplegia ahead, many would have faded from the public eye. But Sharry Konopski was not most people. Refusing to let her accident define her, she found strength in resilience - and even returned to the pages of Playboy in March 1997, becoming one of the very few models to pose again after such a life-altering event.
She continued modeling and appeared in niche videos that centered on the beauty and sexuality of women with disabilities, reclaiming her own body and challenging cultural taboos about desirability, femininity, and physical difference. In doing so, Sharry became an inadvertent pioneer - an icon not just of beauty, but of courage, perseverance, and self-acceptance.
Beyond her modeling career, Sharry was a devoted wife and mother. Her journey inspired many, offering a powerful reminder that tragedy can never extinguish grace, spirit, or identity.
