Shirley Ann (Brown) Elder went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. A kind, intellectually curious, and happy woman, Shirley was a loving mother, devoted wife, retired educator, and a faithful servant of Christ. The daughter of the late Ira and Pearlie Mae Brown, Shirley was born in Paducah, Texas on July 21, 1936. She was the seventh of nine children.
Shirley demonstrated her impressive intellectual, artistic, athletic, and managerial skills early in life. An accomplished pianist, Shirley played the piano for her family and at church and school events. When the “negro” schools were closed so that the kids could join their parents in the field to pick cotton for local landowners during harvest season, Shirley proved herself quick and efficient, often logging the heaviest bags of cotton in the shortest amount of time. Her athletic and intellectual gifts allowed her to start as a point guard on Paducah’s Dunbar High School basketball team and to graduate at 15. She attended and graduated from Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) in Prairie View, Texas.
A music major at PVAMU, Shirley was engaged in many activities, was a member of the 26ers Club, and was almost always listed on the University’s honor roll. She was also 1st runner up in the 1956 Miss Prairie View pageant. Johnnie (Hurd) Walker and Valeria (Fry) Phillips, two of her college roommates who remained lifelong friends, recalled Shirley as a “very smart girl who was easy-going, outgoing, and had an exuberant personality.” “We never had one cross word in all our time living together,” said Johnnie. After graduating early from Prairie View, Shirley and her roommates obtained jobs working at the University so they could receive their diplomas alongside friends from their freshman class.
Shirley lived a life filled with noteworthy accomplishments. After college graduation she moved to Los Angeles to become a teacher. While waiting to get certified to work in the school district, she worked at the U.S. Postal Service for a brief time where she met Ike Elder, her husband of 67 years. She became an award-winning educator who taught middle and high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District and, after retiring from LAUSD and moving to Las Vegas, the Clark County School District in Nevada for many years. Shirley was a long-time member of Messiah Baptist Church in Los Angeles, CA and, later, Reconciled Church in Las Vegas.
Shirley is survived by her husband Ike Elder of Las Vegas; son and daughter-in-law Isaac and Mia Elder of Los Angeles; daughter Ronita Elder of Las Vegas; grandchildren Bryce Elder and Shea Estrin; sisters Erma Jean (Brown) Mingo of Denver and Mignon (Brown) Scott of Detroit; brother Joe Brown of Paducah, TX, and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her sisters Velma (Brown) Terry and Hazel (Brown) Rockeymoore; and brothers Charles Brown, Ira Brown, Jr., and Theodore Brown.
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