Shirley Mae Tumminello

1935 - 2023

Shirley Mae Tumminello

March 22, 1935 - April 16, 2023

Davis, California - Shirley Mae Tumminello, 88, died on April 16, 2023 at Carlton Senior Living in Davis, California, where she had lived her final year, during the late stages of Primary Progressive Aphasia. Her daughter Susan was with her.

Shirley, the second of four children, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on March 22, 1935 to Raymond and Priscilla Kirlin. From a young age, Shirley was a talented musician. As a teenager she won a contest with her marimba playing and was featured on a radio program. The family still has the marimba, sheet music, and 78 RPM record of the radio program with Shirley's impressive rendition of Leroy Anderson's "Fiddle-Faddle."

After having lived in Pennsylvania for 19 years, Shirley married Samuel Tumminello and moved to a number of states during the next 18 years, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, New York, New Mexico, Hawaii, and California. A few years after their move to California, Shirley applied and was accepted to the nursing program at Ohlone College. She worked as an RN at Eden Hospital in Castro Valley until she retired at age 70.

Shirley liked to travel, and took many trips with her family and friends over the years. She traveled to Pennsylvania regularly to visit relatives, and some of her happiest memories were of visits to her family's cabin beside a creek in Hillsgrove.

If you visited Shirley's home in Newark, California, where she lived for 49 years, you would find every room filled with books and periodicals. She was an avid reader with a wide variety of interests in both fiction and non-fiction.

Although Shirley's family was her first priority, she was a life-long learner and had many interests. In addition to reading and traveling, some of the activities she enjoyed over the years were playing cards, doing puzzles, cooking and baking, gardening, listening to music (especially jazz), watching movies and shows, attending concerts and theatre productions, visiting national parks, museums and public gardens, playing the piano, sewing, knitting, and quilting.

Shirley always remembered everyone's birthdays, and she liked to make birthdays and holidays special for the children in the family. The grandchildren have fond memories of the snack bags she provided for their journeys home.

Shirley was a strong, intelligent person who was curious and adventurous, stubborn and determined, generous and loving, protective and caring.

Shirley's family misses her laugh, her reserved (and sometimes dark) sense of humor, her comforting presence, and the welcoming home she made for her entire family to gather. Although Shirley was reserved in her display of emotion, her family felt her love.

Shirley is survived by her daughters, who all live in California: Susan (Ken) Taylor of Woodland, Rita Tumminello of Watsonville, Mary Fontanilla of Fremont, and Amy (Jennifer) Vogel of Monrovia.

Shirley is also survived by her seven grandchildren: Laura, Sarah, Victor, Matthew, Ligaya, Carmelita, and Ava; her nine great-grandchildren: Adaleyd, Giovanni, Kaia, Hadrian, Ariana, Dominic, Iona, Leonardo, and Atlas; and many relatives in Pennsylvania, including her brother Raymond Kirlin, Jr., her sister Judith Hinnershitz, and her ex-husband Samuel. Shirley's older brother, Frederick Kirlin, preceded her in death.

A private family celebration of Shirley's life was held in May 2023.