Colleen Shaw

Colleen’s joy was to sing, write stories and poems, and attend church. She was a child of the Great Depression. Rationing had a profound effect on her. She was born in 1934 in Cross Junction, Virginia to hardworking industrious parents. As a baby, Colleen accompanied her mother as she harvested apples. She cooed in an apple fragrant wooden basket until she was too heavy to scoot through the orchards.

She loved to tell the story about singing on a local radio station in the same era as Patsy Cline, who also attended James Wood High School in Winchester, Virginia.

In addition to being a working mother and wife, she wore “numerous hats” during her lifetime. Following a desire to serve others, she answered another “calling” and fulfilled a life-long ambition to become a nurse. Colleen attended college and become an LPN, at the same time her oldest daughter was in college. The two spent hours studying together. With her fortitude, Colleen began a new career, working beachside for Ormond Beach Osteopathic Hospital and later for the ever-expanding Halifax Area Hospital.

She saw the need for Aged Care and started her own business “Keeper of the Dear,” an ambulatory nursing home. Her middle daughter, Anita, was instrumental in the day-to-day operations.

However busy Colleen was, she never gave up her dream of being a star. Ultimately she got her wish and is a shining star in Heaven.

Colleen had a “Big Life”. She lived in North Carolina, Alaska, California, and all throughout Florida. In retirement, she traveled and enjoyed the vast beauty of the United States. Colleen’s greatest joy was to be a wife. She was blessed to meet and fall in love with Dean G. Shaw late in their lives. Together they shared a renewed passion for life that brightened their remaining years. Few people are so lucky.

Colleen was proceeded in death by her husband, Dean G. Shaw, her parents Jessie and Edgar Largent, her brother, Charles Largent, her son Charles McKinney, her son-in-law, Roger Carpenter, previous husbands Eugene Rhinehardt, and Glenn Whittaker.

Colleen and Dean are wished eternal happiness together. She will be missed by her friends and large family including daughters Asonya McKinney Brown (Gary), Anita Carpenter (Roger), Daughter-in-law MaryJane McKinney, Maria Alana Hayes (Kenny), granddaughters Tiffany Bunce (Troy), Stephanie Edmundson (Eric), Rhiannon McKinney, Glynis McKinney, Amber Hayes, Autumn Hayes, great grandchildren Calvin Chess (Jaylyn), Madelynn Chess, Isabelle Umbenhower, Gracie Edmundson, Hunter Edmundson, and a newborn great-great grandchild, Kinslleigh.

A special “Thank You” to her dear “extended family,” Myrna Hagin, Joel and Laura Sutton and Joyce Smith.

In lieu of flowers, donations to your favorite charity on behalf of Colleen are greatly appreciated and spread her goodness beyond her passing. Donations to those charities will be recognized and read at her gravesite during a small private family gathering for Colleen and Dean Shaw, who will be jointly inurned at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens, 5740 S. Pine Avenue, Ocala, Florida 34480 on Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 2:30 p.m.