Shirley Ann Christiansen

1930 - 2022

Shirley Ann (Gloyer) Christiansen passed away in the presence of her surviving family on the afternoon of Sunday, January 16, 2022 at the age of 91. Another victim to the complications of COVID and congestive heart failure. She spent her final four years at the Brookdale Assisted Living facility in Loma Linda, CA.

Shirley was born on December 15, 1930 in North Platte, Nebraska and raised in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Later she earned a business degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder. She taught typing at Scottsbluff High School before meeting Dwight Christiansen at a picnic in the back yard of her parent's house. They married in 1953. Shirley and Dwight left Nebraska to start their life together in California after he accepted a position as a plant pathologist at the University of California at Riverside. They bought their first house in Riverside in 1959 where Shirley resided for the next 58 years.

In 1955 Shirley gave birth to her first son, Mark, and later her second son, Lance in 1959. Shirley was her happiest making a loving home for her family during the '60s. She was a devoted wife, mother, and happy homemaker, making holidays special and her home a castle for her family. As her favorite singer, Glen Campbell, used to sing: "Such are the dreams of the everyday housewife."

Her life took a drastic turn in 1970, as leukemia took her husband at a young age. After working part-time in the UCR library during Dwight's illness, she went to work there full-time and devoted herself to raising her boys. She never remarried. Shirley worked her way up to the head of Books and Accounting for the UCR library, before retiring in 1991.

In retirement, Shirley spent much of her time tending the prize-winning roses her husband had started years earlier along her front driveway. Passersby would complement her on her "beautiful roses" as she nurtured them along. When not tending her roses in the front yard, Shirley could be found in her backyard refilling her feeders for her beloved hummingbirds. She will be remembered by all for her easy laugh.

Shirley was preceded in death by her mother Gladys (Eads), father Henry Gloyer, husband Dwight, and brother Don. She is survived by her son Mark of Green Valley, CA, son Lance (Dina) of Apple Valley, CA and her granddaughter Corrinna Colby (Bryan) and great grandchildren Ryan, Annie, and Eric of Chandler, AZ.

An informal graveside service will be held at Pierce Brothers Crestlawn Memorial Park at 11500 Arlington Avenue in Riverside, on Tuesday, March 22nd, at 11:30 AM. There she will be laid to rest next to her husband after 51 years apart, but not forgotten.