Family and friends are mourning the death of longtime local television weather forecaster Sharie Shima late last week. She was 52.

No details were released about the circumstances surrounding her death, in keeping with her last wishes, her close friend told the Star-Advertiser.

Expressions of grief are being posted on Facebook, including one by a former co-worker who recalled speaking with her after she had what was described as life-saving surgery in 2010, after Shima had moved to California.

She was "very approachable," said Ed Matthews, a news photographer who worked with her at KHNL-TV from 2007 to 2009. She would be recognized and greeted by members of the public more than other TV news personalities in the field, he said.

Angela Keen, another former TV news colleague, described Shima as "the consummate professional. She knew weather and she was always in your corner. She was never competition, she was always there alongside you."

She was a 1979 graduate of Castle High School in Kaneohe, according to Sandra Ordonez Tsujimura, who identified Shima as her classmate. "God bless her and her family," she said in her post.