Being an old hand at looking long and far for potential Playmates, we're always cheered to discover a comely young lass close to home, and they come no closer than our titian-haired Miss January, Sharon Rogers. Sharon graces the Playboy scene as a part-time editorial assistant whose presence we would gladly share from nine to five and then some. She has repeatedly declined our full-time office offers, however, on the unimpeachable grounds that additional editorial work would encroach on her two other metiers. For, besides her afternoons at Playboy, multifaceted Sharon is a schoolgirl in the mornings and a Bunny evenings at Chicago's Playboy Club.
As a 10-o'clock scholar, our 21-year-old Playmate attends school -- the private secretarial variety. -- four days a week, improving her shorthand and typing. She spends afternoons at the Playboy offices, filing, sorting and locating pictures in the extensive Playboy photo library, which now includes many shots of Sharon herself. Besides her pictorial laurels this month, Miss January made a fetching snow miss as our ski-clad November cover girl, and also appeared in the July Bunny story and as the roommate of our November Playmate, Terre Tucker. Terre has since departed for a New York modeling career, and Sharon now rooms with other Bunnies in the Chicago Bunny dormitory. Here Sharon and roommates Linda Castorina and Judy Ryder indulge in their share of late-evening dormitory high jinks, which includes everything from philosophical talk sessions to friendly wrestling. Frolicsome Sharon is five-foot-two with eyes of blue, who looks closer to 16 than her actual 21 years. Though she certainly doesn't have time on her hands, in her free moments she enjoys Steve McQueen movies, the Bullwinkle show, Ayn Rand, backgammon, and watching sports-car races. "I keep busier than most girls I know," Sharon says, "and I sometimes think I'm just not getting enough sleep. I hate to snooze too much, anyway, because when I wake up I just know I've missed something. Besides, I've heard somewhere that too much sleep makes you gain weight, and I'm terribly worried I'll get chubby." Those fears are groundless, for she has no trouble getting her petite 35-22-35 form into a Bunny costume. Born in Seattle, Sharon has lived in Chicago long enough to call it her home. She nurtures acting ambitions, which is understandable, since she's a second cousin of the late Will Rogers. Sharon studied piano as a child, but gave it up after high school. She enjoys "any sort of music except hillbilly," and concedes a special weakness for the classical. Listening or playing, her favorite of favorites is Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. She's wild about Wilder -- Billy or Thornton -- and also enjoys steak, chocolate milk shakes, Paul Newman, talk dates over café au lait, and stuffed animals, which she considers true friends. For a glimpse of Sharon, bearly dressed with a very close friend, vide gatefold.
"I can't ever decide which of the three lives I'm living pleases me most. Working for Playboy is certainly a thrill, because there's always something exciting happening there, and besides that, it's interesting and carries a little responsibility as well.... I always seem to perform better when I know people are counting on me."
"Being a Playboy Club Bunny is one of the biggest thrills of my life. Whenever I'm in the Club, serving guests or greeting keyholders, I feel like I'm onstage, performing -- and I guess in a sense I am. In the year I've been at The Playboy Club I've met nicer people than I ever knew before. It really has changed my life."
"I studied piano for ten years, but I don't play much anymore. I love music, though, and whenever I get depressed, I put something bright and cheerful on the phonograph. Nothing perks me up faster than music or joking and kidding around with my roommates."
