Shirley Ann Jaques

Shirley Ann Osmer Jaques was born to Willie and Girley Downing Osmer on January 11, 1941 in Kennett, Missouri, and died October 1 2017 at University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City at the age of 76 years 8 months and 20 days. The youngest of five children, she passed her formative years there in the boot heel of Missouri attending school, church and working in the fields picking cotton. It was at Holcomb High that Shirley met Wayne Jaques, the young man she would marry on March 29, 1959 in Bragg City, Missouri. The couple spent their 58 years of marriage making homes throughout the south and midwest following the path of Wayne's career in retail. Shirley approached each move as a chance to hone her creative talents in homemaking and utilize her tremendous landscaping skills. They made homes in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and finally Iowa. Along the way, they nurtured three children....Angie, Jacque and John. Shirley was an at home mom until her youngest child began school, at which time she took a job working at a dress shop in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was there that she worked, until in 1989 it was once again time for a move......this time to Iowa. With a new rural lifestyle came a new ambition and in 2000 she opened a tearoom in Ogden, Iowa, The Sugarplum 2000. She happily and successfully operated her tearoom until she retired in 2006. Retirement allowed Shirley to more readily express her unending creativity. She could often be found tickling the ivories of her baby grand piano in her music room or sketching the portrait of one of her children or of one of her favorite classical composers.......Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach among others. Perhaps her greatest creative endeavor was realized when, writing under the pseudonym of S. J. Blackwell, she penned The Unveiling of Jessie, a work of fiction based loosely on Osmer family history. In December of 2016 Shirley's family had the manuscript published in hardcover as a Christmas present that she cherished. When she wasn't landscaping the Jaques grounds or painting entire homes or creating masterful pieces of artwork or literary masterpieces, Shirley enjoyed listening to her classical music. She had a voracious appetite for music. It was evident in many aspects of her life. She and Wayne were often seen tooling around town sporting their Bthoven license plates and she attended numerous musical events throughout her life running the gamut from symphony orchestras to rock concerts to the various musical endeavors of her children and grandchildren. Shirley passed peacefully on October 1, 2017 as Wayne spoke to her softly and held her hand. She was preceded in death by her mother, father, siblings and her daughter, Angie. Shirley is survived by her husband, Wayne; daughter, Jacque (Marc) of Grand Junction, IA; son, John of Albania; grandchildren, Samantha, Josie, Nathan, Hayden, and Nick; great-grandchildren Adelyn and Aiden; as well as her loving nieces and nephews and many special friends.