This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Shirley Anne (Williams) Mack

Shirley Anne (Williams) Mack, a resident of Guilford since 1963, passed away at home on July 27. She was 88 years old, and the widow of the late William Marshall Mack who died in 2014. Shirley was born during the Great Depression on Dec. 14, 1933, in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Anne Louise (Selden) Williams and John Gervais Williams. She was the granddaughter of Henry Curtis Selden and Fanne Heffelfinger and the granddaughter of Francis Daniel Williams and Genevieve Gervais.

Shirley’s father’s family was hit hard by the stock market crash of 1929, and in the late 1930s when Shirley and her younger brother John were still young, her father took a job in Buffalo, New York, and moved the family. They returned to Minnesota often in the summers to visit family, especially out in the country at Mahtomedi on White Bear Lake, where her Williams grandparents had a place. They eventually settled in East Aurora, New York, where Shirley met her future husband Bill. They met in elementary school, and she attended his 9th birthday party, where upon leaving he blew her a kiss, quite embarrassing for an 8-year-old girl! They didn’t start dating until senior year in high school, where he finished top in class among the boys, and she finished first among the girls, in the East Aurora Class of 1951.

Shirley attended St. Lawrence University, and Bill went to a different college. They decided it would be wise to date other people in their college years, but halfway through the four years, they reconfirmed they were meant to be together. Shirley received a degree in sociology; and they were married in the summer of 1955, just after they both graduated.

After moving to New Haven, while Bill was in Yale Law School, they started a family, with son William S. born in New Haven, and son Timothy J. born in Guilford, where they had moved in April 1963. Shirley prioritized her family life above career development, doing secretarial work in the early years and taking in extra typing work that she could do at home with young children. One of her strong priorities was wanting to work jobs that would allow her to be home in the afternoons when her boys got home from school. To that end, she had a family daycare business in her Guilford home on High Street for many years. She had several different jobs in her middle decades, including working for two longtime Guilford residents as a personal secretary. She even took a bartending class and worked for a short time as bartender. But then, she worked for 30 years in local ophthalmology offices, most recently that of Dr. Shore. She was made of sturdy stuff, about which her husband Bill often bragged, since she took only one sick day in those three decades. Shirley and Bill were fresh air enthusiasts, having a window open at least a tad all night even in the winter. When Dr. Shore decided to retire in his mid-60s, Shirley was still there at age 80, anchoring the office staff and greeting hundreds of local friends and acquaintances each year.

Shirley loved the beach, especially at outer Cape Cod where her family vacationed every year after they had honeymooned at South Wellfleet in 1955. She loved Meigs Point at Hammonasset, and Jacobs Beach. She was a fierce card player, like her mother. She was always smiling, and had a great sense of humor. She loved cinema, reading film critics and watching the Academy Awards, and sometimes would go see a movie she loved three to five times (seven may have been her record), because “there is always something new you see each time.” While her husband tended to run late, she was always early. They always laughed at how he had to endure sitting in the “cold, dark movie theatre” with her for 20 minutes before each show, because she couldn’t risk being late. She also was a voracious reader, mostly of novels, until her later years. For many years, she made holiday cards with her own photographs attached on the front.

Shirley was a smart and quick-witted woman, and believed in expressing emotions frankly. She was a loving and devoted mother and grandmother, always generous with gifts and very reliable at getting cards out in time for birthdays, anniversaries and thank yous. She loved holidays and family events, whether cooking Thanksgiving dinner for large family gatherings, or going to other people’s homes to celebrate. She was dedicated to attending her grandchildren’s sporting events, recitals and other important occasions. Shirley was a good friend to many, giving sound advice and always ready with a laugh or a shoulder to cry on. Shirley was also part of the early group that started the Hole in the Wall consignment thrift store in 1974, in support of the important Guilford ABC program. She worked there as a volunteer for many years.

She loved her husband very much, and when he died suddenly in 2014, after 59 years of marriage, she was temporarily adrift. But she threw herself into Meals on Wheels volunteerism (five years), library volunteer work and took piano and line dancing classes. She ended up with a mostly long-distance boyfriend in her 80s, an old friend from Guilford 40 years before, Russell Phillips. This relationship, which included daily phone calls, helped bring her some happiness in her widowhood. Shirley was also a dedicated walker, often seen on the Green or nearby in the early morning hours, keeping up a brisk pace until her body finally slowed her down in her late 80s. All of this kept her vibrant for a long time, though the isolation of the pandemic was tough for her.

Shirley had never lived alone until after her husband died in 2014, and once she found her wonderful second-floor walk-up apartment on Boston Street that she rented from an old friend, she just loved it. Over the years, we tried to convince her to move to a ground floor apartment or to assisted living, but she always refused. As old age increasingly limited her independence in her final years, this “room of her own” was her final refuge. She loved watching her beloved Mets on TV and watching the world go by on the street. We are so grateful she got her wish to stay there until the end.

She is survived by her son Bill (Susan) of Kensington, California; and her son Tim (Ali) of Durham; and by her grandchildren: Lalita Moskowitz of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sarah Giguere (Bryan) of Scituate, Rhode Island, Hannah Herman of Colorado Springs, and Noah Palo and Gwynneth, Hazel and Peyton Palo Mack of Durham. She is also survived by her brother John Williams (Sue) of Rochester, New York.

Friends are invited to visitation calling hours from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, at the Guilford Funeral Home, 115 Church Street, Guilford. Services and burial will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Guilford A Better Chance, P.O. Box 140, Guilford; http://www.guilfordabc.org/ , or to Guilford Interfaith Volunteers for their Meals on Wheels, Sachem Hollow, 310 State St, Suite#200, Guilford, CT 06437; https://givct.org/ To share a memory or leave condolences, you may visit www.guilfordfuneralhome.com.