Shirley-Anne Owden

1950 - 2018

Shirley-Anne Owden

September 15, 1950-April 28, 2018

The world lost a shining presence and Hallmark lost one of its best customers on April 28, 2018, when Shirley-Anne Owden of Mountain View died at the age of 67 after a courageous six-year battle against cancer.

She delighted in sending cards to her many friends, young and old, and surprising them with thoughtful gifts, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, homemade rum cake and home-grown tomatoes. She took pictures of family and friends at every occasion and shared those, too. Shirley-Anne loved the black squirrels who visited her backyard and, if you were lucky, she sent you a squirrel birthday card or a present wrapped in squirrel paper. Each Christmas, she spent days decorating a huge Noble fir tree. The 2017 masterpiece, at least 12 feet tall, was festooned with hundreds of ornaments and ablaze with colored lights.

She must have known that was her last Christmas because, despite feeling ill, she invited many friends to see that tree and sip a cup of rooibos tea while she recounted who had given her many of the ornaments and the occasions they marked. Unbeknownst to some of her visitors, she had lovingly recorded the origin of each ornament in a small journal.

Besides squirrels, Shirley-Anne loved Britain's royal family (her name was inspired by her mother's love of Princess Anne and her father's fondness for Shirley Temple), "Downton Abbey," dark chocolate, papayas and cherries, grilled cheese sandwiches, Bajis Cafe and the Sunday farmer's market in Mountain View, her Zumba class, giraffes, Alexander McCall Smith's books, Springsteen, the Giants and Warriors, the Peanuts comic strip and her red 1973 classic Datsun 510, which fittingly had "L SNOOPO" on the license plate.

The word most people use to describe Shirley-Anne is "kind." She was also generous, cheerful, funny, smart, witty, sentimental, enthusiastic and an extremely talented editor who often found a way to work a pun into a headline. One of her favorites was "Yurts So Good," for her story about the Treebones Resort's "glamping" accommodations in portable tents called yurts. She was an excellent feature writer, too, and covered topics ranging from the opening of the San Francisco Opera to the renewed popularity of wicker furniture to celebrity profiles. After interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger during his body-building days, she commented on his funny accent and told friends, "He'll never amount to anything."

Remembering the petite journalist, a friend would later write: She was "a tiny lil thing with a heart bigger than the whole [newspaper] building.' Another colleague wrote that Shirley-Anne "had a sharp wit and a keen insight into the foibles of us all — and yet she chose to always be kind and up-lifting," while others described her as "a wonderful mentor," "a joy, and a total pro, to work with," and "a ray of sunshine — a ray with a wonderfully sarcastic edge that made everyone enjoy her all the more."

Born in Montreal, in 1950, to Albert ("Happy") and Dita Owden, Shirley-Anne and her parents moved to Toronto and then, in 1956, to the United States. They lived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Kansas City, Kan.; Dallas and Burlingame, where she graduated from Burlingame High School in 1968. They later moved to San Mateo. Shirley-Anne graduated from San Jose State University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism.

Shirley-Anne was thrilled when she landed her first job at the Boutique and Villager, a small local paper in Burlingame. She soon transitioned to the Palo Alto Times, followed by the Peninsula Times Tribune, also in Palo Alto. In 1988 she moved to the San Mateo Times, where she worked as a feature writer and copy editor until the paper was sold in 1996, a time when newspapers all over the country were cutting workers or shutting down. She joined the San Francisco Examiner, where she worked as a copy editor and Peninsula editor until 2000, when the staffs of the Examiner and The San Francisco Chronicle merged. She took a buyout from The Chronicle in 2009 and later worked as a freelance copy editor for San Francisco magazine. For many years, she also provided exceptional care for her mother, and she was heartbroken when Dita died in 2011 at the age of 102.

In 1981, Shirley-Anne knew she had met her match when she offered a co-worker an animal cracker, and he replied, "No, thanks, I'm a vegetarian." On Feb. 11, 1989, Shirley-Anne married that co-worker, Robert MacRae Hoskins. For 37 years they were inseparable. Their favorite vacation spots were Hana, Hawaii, and Elk (Mendocino County).

Shirley-Anne is survived by her husband, Rob, and her cousins Albert (Laurie) Murphy and Barbara Murphy of Vancouver, British Columbia; and Leonard Murphy, Barbara Lyons, Mary Higden, George Higden, Miriam Kissel, Robert Higden and Wendy Higden of Montreal.

If you wish to make a donation in Shirley-Anne's memory, the family suggests donating to one of the funds managed by the Centre for Effective Altruism (effectivealtruism.org/funds) or to El Camino Hospital Cancer Center through the El Camino Hospital Foundation, 2500 Grant Road, PAR 116, Mountain View, CA 94040.

A celebration of Shirley-Anne's life will be held on June 24 in San Mateo. For additional information, please contact saowden@gmail.com.