Shelly Foster

1917 - 2011

Shelly Ann Foster

September 9, 1917?January 21, 2011

SALEM - Shelly Ann Obarr Foster quietly slipped the bonds of earth Friday evening, January 21, 2011.

Shelly was born to William Shelby Obarr and Maud R. Jones Obarr in Hollister, California, in 1917. She graduated from Strathmore High School, earned her A. A. from Porterville Community College, and B. A. from Pomona College. Studying art and education, she qualified for a California Teaching Credential, and was employed as an elementary teacher in Villa Park, California, after she graduated.

A young soldier by the name of Lester Foster caught her eye at a USO dance in Santa Ana in 1943: they were married less than a year later. They moved to Texas, where Lester worked in the Army psych unit, while Shelly found a job at the local elementary school. Their next posting was to Virginia, where Shelly used her considerable artistic skills for the war effort, helping to make maps. When the war ended, the couple returned to California, and eventually settled in Torrance, their home for the next thirty-plus years.

While Lester took a job with the Torrance Unified School District, Shelly was a "stay at home mom," busily raising their three children and devoting her spare time to painting classes, knitting, sewing, church activities,, and decorating and re-decorating the family home. When two of her children were in high school, Shelly returned to work, and found great success as a kindergarten teacher. A particular point of pride was her ability to teach budding young minds to read, some who started school not speaking English. Around that same time she and Lester also started acquiring houses to fix up and rent. Facing a rapidly emptying nest with two of their children in college and the youngest a senior in high school, Lester and Shelly adopted nine year old Michael and once again got involved in youth activities.

In 1980, both Shelly and Lester retired from the Torrance Unified School District and moved to Salem, Oregon, where two of their children had settled. They immediately started work on rental property and adding finishing touches to a new house they were having constructed. Shelly served on the Methodist Church's Altar Guild, and assisted Hmong people in their efforts to become acclimated to American life. A few years later, they built a vacation house at Road's End that the family enjoyed for more than twenty years. She and Lester continued their devotion to gardening, cooking, baking, and eating, relishing the Willamette Valley's abundance and exploring the Northwest.

Throughout her life, she was endlessly interested in both world and family history. But most of all, she truly relished her role as grandma: caring for grandchildren at various times and fulfilling the challenge of influencing and stretching their young minds. Experiments or projects were always underway. Art lessons, color mixing lessons, cooking demonstrations abounded, and she frequently invoked her grandmother's advice on children: "Surprise them."

Shelly had a full and interesting life. Her fortitude and example are only now being realized by all who cared for her.

She will be missed by her three children and their spouses, Betsy (Richard) Scott, Bill (Lucy) Foster, and Jane (John) Moreland; daughter in law, Florentina Foster; grandchildren Melinda, Kevin, Andrew, Gwendolyn, Michele, Michael, and Candace, and great-grandchild, Makai. Also mourning her passing are many cousins and their children and grandchildren. Her husband Lester passed away in 2007, and adopted son Michael in 1995.

The family is especially grateful to the caring employees of Farmington Square in Salem for their gentle care during her last two years and Hospice during her final days.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that a contribution be made to a local arts organization, or to Hospice.

Memorial services in Salem will take place on Saturday afternoon, March 26 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Salem; interment will be in Santa Ana, California at the family plot May 6.