Shirley May Adams Rodgers was born on March 12, 1927, and passed away peacefully on Nov. 12, 2019, in Charleroi. Shirley was the daughter of Edward and Lillian Denike Adams. She was born at home in Detroit, Mich., and the family relocated back to Ontario, Canada, in 1939. At the age of 12, she worked in her father’s Hamilton, Ontario, drugstore, serving customers at the soda fountain and delivering prescriptions on her bicycle. A few years later, she started a new job at a candy store called The Sugar Bowl, where she made chocolates and served lunches. At age 16, she worked in the lab at the Westinghouse Plant, mixing the powder that went inside neon lights. Shirley enrolled in nursing school in 1946, at the Greater Niagara General Hospital Training School for Nurses. That year, in the very same drugstore where she first worked, she also met her beloved husband, Leroy. They met in Canada while he was on leave from the U.S. Army and they were married on Sept. 16, 1950. Shirley spent most of her nursing career as a medical-surgical nurse at Charleroi-Monessen Hospital. She also worked as a plant occupational health nurse at Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel prior to retiring. She was a long-time member of the Mon Valley Nurses Association. Throughout Shirley and Leroy’s 60 years of marriage, they enjoyed traveling with the Charleroi Elk’s Club Lodge No. 494 for Ritual Competitions and participated in the local senior mixed bowling league in Bentleyville. Early on in their romance they loved to jitterbug and go to the roller-skating rink. Shirley’s life was full of many fascinating experiences and wonderful achievements, but the greatest source of pride and joy for her was making a good life for her husband, children and grandchildren. Shirley was loved by many and will be dearly missed by her family and friends. Shirley was the cherished mother (mother-in-law) of Linda (Dennis), Michael (John), Deborah (Allan), Janet (Larry); grandma to Heather (Liz), Erin (John), Paul (Elly), Sean (Alex), Keyton (Becky), and Kierra (Zach); and great-grandma to Rowan and Adam. She was predeceased by her husband, Leroy, in 2010; and son, Paul, in 1974. Visitation will be held from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, at LEONARD M. PAVLIC FUNERAL HOMES INC., 235 Fallowfield Ave., Charleroi, where funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18, 2019, with the Rev. Bob Hanna officiating. Interment will follow at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Carroll Township. Many thanks to Dr. Rajesh C. Shah M.D. for his compassionate and long-term medical care. And a huge thank to Jennifer Hartman and her staff at the Mon Valley Care Center for mom’s on-going support and assistance in her later years. In lieu of flowers, consider donating to the Dementia Society @ www.dementiasociety.org.or the charity of your choice. Online condolences may be made at www.pavlicfuneralhomes.com.
