In 1952, Shirley Jenkins was a last-minute addition to the counseling roster at a Christian summer camp in Jumonville, Pa. Ralph Shipley was a counterpart who hoped he would see another girl named Shirley, whom he’d met at camp the year before.
She wasn’t there. Fortunately for him, his future wife was.
He and Ms. Jenkins began to fall for each other, and Ralph made sure he’d see this Shirley again. After a softball game for which the boys wore skirts, Ralph held on to the one he’d borrowed from her so he’d have an excuse to visit her after the camp ended.
So began a love that lasted for more than 50 years and formed the foundation of a strong family unit that’s mourning the loss of its matriarch. Shirley Shipley died of COVID-19 Wednesday at St. Barnabas Nursing Home in Richland. She was 85.
The daughter of a civil engineer, Ms. Shipley was born Feb. 7, 1935 in Mansfield, Ohio. Her family moved around a lot because of her father’s job before settling in East McKeesport.
She was a dedicated student and faithful Christian, which made her a natural fit with Ralph, who pursued ministry after they married in 1954. A few years after starting their life together, they moved to Mineral Point, Wisc., where Mr. Shipley served a church while studying theology at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston, Ill.
The couple had two of their five children there before moving back to Pennsylvania, where Mr. Shipley was assigned as a minister in the United Methodist Church. He served congregations in Jefferson, Laketon, Scottdale, Penn Hills and West Newton. Throughout, Ms. Shipley taught Sunday school and Bible study, organized youth groups and sang in the choir.
Secondary education remained a priority, too. The couple discussed it for years until Mr. Shipley secretly applied for his wife to attend the school now known as California University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Shipley graduated magna cum laude, then earned the same distinction while pursuing a master’s in speech pathology and learning disabilities at the University of Pittsburgh, all while raising five children and maintaining her involvement in the church.
A fulfilling career with the Western Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit serving children with special needs followed. Ms. Shipley made such an impact there that at her retirement party in 2000, the tributes for families kept coming and coming.
“She did a phenomenal job,” her son Timothy said. “They spent hours coming up to the microphone and talking about what she had done for their child [that] had changed their life and what an impact it had made on them. And how much it had changed their child’s life and expectations for how much they could accomplish. ... It was a very special day.”
At home, Ms. Shipley was a loving mother. She held her children accountable, so there were consequences for misbehavior, but Timothy Shipley said she always imposed them with a hug. Similarly close relationships were cultivated with her 10 grandchildren. It was a family tradition for her to do something special for each for their 16th birthday, sometimes traveling as far as France and Ireland to create personalized memories.
Ms. Shipley was also an adept baker best known for her white pie that she’d make each Christmas. The recipe is now in the good hands of granddaughter Megan Redfoot, who’s assumed the role of family baker.
Shirley’s life was not without loss. Her oldest child, Debbie, died of a sudden brain aneurysm in 1993. The moment hit everyone hard, but Timothy Shipley said she led the family through it by leaning on her faith.
Twelve years later, in 2005, Ralph Shipley died. Her love for him endured through the rest of her life.
“There’s a joke that goes around the family that she actually told,” Timothy Shipley said. “She said if she was ever going to be with another man, God would have to drop the man in her lap. That’s why any time a single man her age would walk in the room, she would always stand up.”
Ms. Shipley’s ministry continued without Ralph into her later years. She helped with the Stephen Ministry, in which she quietly tended to the homebound and those who live alone. She also stayed involved in Bible study, volunteered at hospitals and knitted quilts that were given away to those in need.
Those acts of selflessness were, more or less, her hobbies.
“She was very much a servant,” Timothy Shipley said.
Dementia had begun to set in before her illness, so her final months were difficult as Ms. Shipley struggled with memory and finding her words. She had, however, been fairly healthy physically before her diagnosis, her son said. She even coped with the disease quite well before taking a bad turn beginning Monday.
She did so without her family, as visitors were not permitted because of the virus. St. Barnabas staff did, however, arrange a call with each of her children and grandchildren so that they could say their goodbyes. A nurse noticed her reacting, so the family is hopeful they heard her, Timothy Shipley said.
They’re also looking forward to gathering to celebrate her life with friends as soon as the current period of social distancing ends.
“Everybody called her a saint, so that’s how I’ll remember her,” Timothy said.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com.
First Published: April 14, 2020, 11:00 a.m.