Teena Shorb

SHORB Joan Lloyd Shorb (age 91), known to all as "Teena", died suddenly of natural causes on July 1, 2024.

She was born Joan Carol Lloyd, in 1933 in DeWitt, New York, to Jack D. and Catherine Lloyd. She studied at the Goodyear-Burlingame School in Syracuse and graduated from the Emma Willard School in Troy and Bradford Junior College, where she was president of the Bradford Dance Group. She then attended and graduated from the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing, where she met her husband of nearly 65 years, Dr. Paul E. Shorb, Jr., with whom she raised 5 children. Paul predeceased her in 2021 at the age of 91.

She was an athlete who relished physical activity throughout her life. In her early years she practiced ballet, reportedly could walk upstairs on her hands, and claims she disqualified several potential suitors by beating them in arm-wrestling. She went on to enjoy paddle tennis, duckpin bowling, and traveling worldwide on SCUBA diving excursions with her husband. She was featured in a local TV news report for taking kickboxing classes in her 70's and she swam happily in the chilly Maine waters into her 80's, using a rope line to help her climb back up the slippery rocks.

She had a strong creative drive and unique visual sensibility. Early on, she did well entering flower arrangements into local competitions. In later years, she enjoyed repainting old furniture with wildly colorful designs. Her largest and longest project was the hilltop property in St. George Maine that she and Paul owned as a summer home, which she gradually transformed to fit her vision. There she drove a tractor to mow the fields, chainsawed paths through the woods, scraped off detritus to expose rocky outcroppings, and recruited grandchildren to restore stone walls around the fields.

She viewed one of her parenting roles as "mama bear", fiercely protective of her children when necessary. However, she also allowed her kids to learn by choosing to take certain physical risks for the sake of fun or adventure, which resulted in the occasional sprain, break, or sunburn, but also a sense of confident self-determination. She indulged her grandchildren by baking pies and making jam with them, showing them how to build a fairy house in the woods or catch a frog in the pond, and taking them shopping at thrift stores and on boat trips to Maine islands.

Teena was known for her playfulness, with a laugh often described as a cackle, and as an occasional prankster. She loved games and her cheerful competitiveness was legendary, whether in horseshoes, bocce, Ping-Pong, Scrabble, or charades. For her 84th birthday, her husband Paul promised to play her 100 games of Scrabble; on the morning of February 19, 2021, before his fatal heart attack later that day, they played their 1,787th game together.

Survivors include her five children and their spouses, twelve grandchildren, and two great grandchildren: Paul Shorb, married to Ellen Meyer Shorb, and their children Trevor, Cameron, Leah, and Anna; Elizabeth St. Clair, married to Steve St. Clair, and their children Paul and Isa; Jennifer Tully, married to Jim Tully, and their children Caity and Brendan and grandchildren Griffin and Nora; Allison Shorb, married to Michael Royce, and her children Theseus and Stephanie Schulze; and John Shorb, married to Ellie Shorb, and their children Jack and Catherine.

A memorial service to celebrate her life may be scheduled at a future date.

She became an insatiable reader of novels in her later years and became one of the top users of the public library at Tenants Harbor, Maine. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Jackson Memorial Library, by mailing a check to 71 Main Street, PO Box 231, Tenants Harbor, ME 04860, or donating online at https://www.jacksonmemoriallibrary.org/support.