Shirley Jean Tow

1927 - 2020

Shirley Jean (Dobbs) Tow

Visalia - Shirley Jean (Dobbs) Tow was born June 15,1927 in San Bernardino, California, a decedent of early settlers in the area. She passed away on Wednesday, the 28th of October, in Visalia. She is preceded in death by a son, John Tow, and her Husband, Harry Tow and is survived by William Tow, of Canberra, Australia, his wife Leslie Tow and her Granddaughter Shannon Tow, all of Australia, and her youngest son Robert Tow of Three Rivers.

She was educated in San Bernardino and as an actress at the Pasadena Playhouse in Southern California. She gave up acting as a career to be a full-time wife and mother, but from her teens used and shared her talents. She single-handedly organized a wartime, weekly teenage "night-club" which served hundreds of San Bernardino's high school students, and had a weekly, commercial, radio show featuring high school activities.

After marriage, she acted in community theatre in Santa Barbra. After moving to Visalia, she helped establish Visalia's community theater, receiving one of its earliest annual outstanding acting awards. She taught speech to Visalia high school students and for seventeen years had a daily one-hour interview program on a local, Tulare/Visalia radio station. Upon her retirement from that program, she organized and conducted H.S. and European travel tours for older Tulare County residents. Active in an Episcopal Church youth leadership role and other church activities, she was beloved by a host of friends. Most important to her, she was a loving and tireless wife and mother.

Always cheerful, buoyant, and inspirational, she will be well remembered and truly missed as she departs this life for her role in God's next-life stage production.

She passed while living at Quail Park Memory Care Center, and the cremation is being done by Yost and Web of Fresno. She will be laid to rest in the Visalia cemetery.