Shirley Blevins

1924 - 2015

Shirley A. Blevins

Shirley A. Blevins, age 90, of Sioux Falls, SD, died May 26, 2015 at the Good Samaritan Center in Sioux Falls. Shirley was the second child born to Charles Myers and Ella Ray Myers in Butler County, KS. Her father was a farmer and mother, a school teacher. She graduated from high School in 1942 and attended Kansas State University for two years majoring in Home Economics and Art.

Shirley left university to work at Aero Parts in Wichita, KS during WWII as a blue print inspector for airplane parts built for the war effort. She met and then married Gerald R. Blevins, a WWII Army Air Corps veteran, in Wichita on February 1, 1946.

Gerald and Shirley lived in Colorado for 52 years, raising their three daughters there, and building four houses.

Shirley was a talented seamstress making clothing and home decor for family and friends. She became an avid quilter, learned needle point, cross stitch, and embroidered. For many years she sang in church choirs, often singing solos. She loved to read, enjoyed entertaining, cooking, tending her flowers, and having friends for coffee. At age 86 she began riding horses again, joining her daughter, Loretta, for trail rides with a group called Hags on Nags.

Shirley is survived by her husband, Gerald, of 69 years; three daughters, Nancy Blevins of Fairfax, VA, Anne Mazza of New York, NY, and Loretta Waltner of Sioux Falls, SD. Additional family members are her sister, Louise Myers of Denver, CO; five grandchildren, Stephanie Mazza, Peter and Michael Mazza, Virginia and Sara Berg; one great grandchild, Joseph Mazza Chimene; and cousins in Kansas.

A memorial service in her honor will be held at Trail Ridge Retirement Community on June 19th, at 2:00 p.m., arrangements by Heritage Funeral Home in Sioux Falls. Her ashes will be interred in Bear Canyon Cemetery, St Philips in the Field Church in Sedalia, CO at a later date.

Donations can be made in Shirley's name for a lift chair for the Good Samaritan Society, Sioux Falls Center, Attn: Tiffany Eichstadt, 401 W. 2nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57104.