Elisabeth Minerva Shipley

Grand Junction,

Colo. ELISABETH SHIPLEY Elisabeth Minerva Shipley was born June 10, 1898, in Chester, Arkansas, the sixth of ten children of Nathan Pascal Shipley Jr. and Mary Tennessee Temple Shipley. She died in Grand Junction, Colo., of natural causes at the age of 106 years, 10 months, 13 days on April 23, 2005. She was the last remaining member of her immediate family.

Miss Shipley began a long teaching career at the age of 18 which continued for 47 years in the Springdale and Fayetteville school systems. A charter member of the Iota Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma honorary teachers? organization, she was a lifetime member for 60 years. She was active in organizing the Parent-Teacher Organization in the Fayetteville Public Schools and bringing music education and school lunches into the public school systems.

She received her bachelor?s and master?s degrees from the University of Arkansas. During her extended tenure in public education, she had a deep and positive influence on her students, many of whom remember her with admiration and affection to the present day.

Elisabeth Shipley is survived by many nieces and nephews, as well as friends and former students in the Fayetteville, Laurens, S. C., and Grand Junction, Colo., areas who have been enriched by her life. Those who have been especially close to her in recent years are her nieces, Helen Bement Reecher of Tulsa, Okla., Marilyn Jane Shipley Aromi of Mobile, Ala.; her nephew, James Duard Marshall and wife Bonnie of Kansas City, Mo.; great nieces, Janet Soule Hassell and husband William B. Hassell Sr. of Grand Junction, Colo., Mary Beth (Elisabeth) Soule Pelletier and her husband, Eugene and family of Fuquay-Varina, N. C., Jan Reecher Edwards of Tulsa, Okla., Jane Shipley Smith and her husband Sy and family of Springdale; great nephews Michael Earl Soule, wife Kay and family of Wyoming, Minn., Dennis Reecher and family of Broken Arrow, Okla.; greatgrandnieces and grandnephews, Kathryn Eileen Pierce and her husband John Robert and son Colton Garrett of Grand Junction, Colo., William B. Hassell Jr. and his wife, Rebecca, their children Hannah Noel, Emily Elisabeth and William B. Hassell III of Norcross, Ga., John Daughety and wife Carlene of Dallas, Anne Dethrow and husband Brian of Dallas; and cousin, Grace Belle Shipley of Eau Claire, Wisc.

Graveside services will be held at a date and time to be announced at Mount Comfort Cemetery in Mount Comfort, Ark. Arrangements are being handled by Callahan-Edfast Mortuary, Grand Junction, Colo., and Luginbuel Funeral Home of Prairie Grove. Memorials may be sent to First Methodist Church, Laurens, S. C.; Martha Frank Baptist Retirement Center, Laurens, S. C.; Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado, Grand Junction, Colo.; or a charity of your choice.