John Charles Shirley

On Monday, January 1, just past Midnight, 98-year old John Charles Shirley rang in the New Year by leaving for Heaven to be with Jesus, his beloved wife, Dolores, and a host of family and friends who made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

John (also known as “JC” amongst his old Kentucky home family and some close friends of the family in the Austin, Texas Area) was born the second of five children of Roy Rand Shirley, Sr., and Nellie (nee Perkins) Shirley in Owenton County, Kentucky. John and his four siblings were raised on their family farm in Kentucky. John was a proud veteran of World War II and the Korean War. He served honorably in the United States Navy Armed Guard (1943-1945) and the United States Air Force (1948-1966) achieving the rank of Master Sergeant as a non-commissioned officer. John’s 21 years in the US Military played a very important role in his life instilling in him the values of discipline, teamwork, and investing in causes larger than himself. He loved his family well, served his church and community, and was fortunate to have had a long, successful career with New York Life after his Military service. John is greatly missed.

From his humble roots on his family farm in Kentucky, John lived an extraordinary and exemplary life full of love and joy. He served his country all over the world and was a faithful man who taught his children, grandchildren, and a host of others to love God and one another. John taught us many lessons with a positive attitude and a hearty laugh throughout his life. He was a role model and loved by many. The lives of John and Dolores’ children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are examples of the significant impact of their collective service to God. Lives well lived.

When John was 17, he enlisted in the US Navy as a Third Class Gunner in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, for Armed Guard Gunnery Training at Camp Shelton. John initially sailed on merchant ships in the Atlantic Ocean in the largest supply fleet in charge of food, clothing, fuel, guns, tanks, medical supplies and more for the US and Allied Troops in the World War II effort to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Germany driven war campaign in Europe and Africa. John embarked on his first Liberty Class ship out of Brooklyn, New York, serving the US Navy Armed Guard (aka “The Secret Navy”) and served on Liberty and Victory ships within a detachment of about 35 men per ship to protect the supply lines to our soldiers where John quickly learned that “loose lips sink ships” and to “evade and avoid”.

On the ship, John operated and maintained the large 450 mm and 451 mm submachine guns, and 20 mm, 350 and 538 anti-aircraft guns. The first place John sailed to was West Africa then up to Marcella, France, and picked up supplies. After the ship was supplied, John traveled on his assigned ship along with a convoy of ships up to the ship locks in England. While traveling up the locks, the ships were fired upon by missiles and other bombs at their convoy. The bombs exploded all around them, but they never hit the ships. His convoy then traveled on to Belgium, Africa, Iceland, and Newfoundland. The side arm he carried was a Colt 45. The convoy had blimps escorting them and looking for enemy submarines along with destroyer escorts, which dropped depth charges on German submarines or U-boats to destroy them.

In August 1945, the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, and Japan and Germany, surrendered to end World War II. After the war, John assisted with loading US POWs on the ships and bringing them back to the US. John’s greatest fear during the war was sinking in the North Atlantic Ocean and freezing to death. In December 1945, after seven God-protected voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, John was honorably discharged from the US Navy. At its peak, the Armed Guard was composed of 144,000 men. Nearly 2,000 men were killed or missing in action.

From 1945 to 1948, John took the opportunity to earn his airplane pilot’s license on the GI Bill before joining the newly formed United States Air Force (formed in 1947) as an Air Policeman in 1948 in Winchester, Kentucky. Initially, John was stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. In September 1949, John transferred to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo. Texas. In the Air Force, John served as an Air Policeman, First Sergeant, and an Airplane Weapons System Analyst where he was responsible for missile security, defending the air base, law enforcement on the base, handling military working dogs, and changing the combinations on the locks, which he did often. During those years in the Air Force, many events transpired in John's life.

Being from Kentucky, John was an outdoorsman in search of a wife who could cook wild game. Stanley Hudler became John's best friend while stationed together at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo. John spent a lot of time with Stanley and his wife, Katie, and Stanley had the perfect wife in mind for John, one of Katie's sisters, Dolores. In November of 1950, John met the love of his life, Dolores Lampert, over a duck dinner while she was spending the weekend with her sister and brother-in-law in San Angelo.

Only five months later, on April 28, 1951, John and Dolores Shirley married in Rosebud, Texas, west of Temple, at the home of her eldest sister, Mable, and her husband, Herbert Ekrut. From there, it was a whirlwind of travel and relocations due to John’s continued military service.

John and Dolores spent their first year of married life in San Marcos, Texas, with John stationed at Gary Air Force Base. In 1952, the Air Force transferred John to Japan to guard a base during the post-war occupation and reconstruction of Japan led by General Douglas MacArthur. While John was in Japan, Dolores moved to Waco, Texas area to be near family as she was expecting their first child, Gregory Charles, who was born in 1952. John saw Greg for the first time in October of 1953 when Greg was 13 months old. Before John left Japan he was presented with a Japanese flag signed by the 200+ US servicemen from the base he guarded as a going away gift in honor of John’s service to so many.

From 1953 to 1956, John was stationed at England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana/ During his tenure in Louisiana, John worked for Major General Claire L. Chennault. Chennault was a renowned American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers", the First American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China during WWII. Chenault used to tell John, “You kick the tires and I’ll light the fires…”, referring to the maintenance and startup of the aircraft on the base. In 1954, John and Dolores’ second son, John Edward, was born at England Air Force Base.

In 1956, John transferred at Connally Air Force Base in Waco, Texas, where he studied to become an Airplane Weapons System Analyst. While stationed in Waco, their third son, William "Mark" was born in 1958. In 1959, John attended Weapons Training School at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, while Dolores and their three young sons remained in Waco near Dolores’ family.

In 1961, John transferred to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where their fourth child, a daughter, Dawn Marie, was born. In 1962, when Dawn was only three months old, John was transferred to “the land of fire and ice” to the city of Keflavik, Iceland, without his wife and four children. He served in Iceland until July 1963 when John transferred to Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Maine. Achieving the rank of Master Sergeant, John retired on August 31, 1966, while the family was living in Bangor.

After retirement from the military in 1966, John moved his family to Austin, Texas, to initially work for defense electronics company Tracor, Austin’s first company traded on the NYSE. He then worked for Montgomery Ward in Capital Plaza on I-35 selling appliances before joining New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) in 1969, where he became one of the top salesmen. Over his years with NYLIC, John received many awards: member of the Million Dollar Round Table, Star Club Leader 1976-1977, Health Insurance Leader in 1976, and a NYLIC Centurion in 1980. Those recognitions included many fun family trips to resorts in the US. In 1988, John retired from NYLIC after a 20-year career. During that time, John seemed to know everybody in Austin because of his friendly, outgoing nature. John came a long way in this world from his humble beginnings in Kentucky. Although he was not given the opportunity to attend college, he did finish high school during his first few years in the Air Force, and worked very hard so that all four of his children could receive a college degree, which was one of his biggest and proudest accomplishments. His uncle CC Rowlett once told him, "JC, where there is a will there is a way!" and John took that advice to heart.

John was a committed Christ follower serving as a Sunday School teacher, deacon, sponsor on youth trips, and on many church and Baptist Association committees. John and Dolores attended Windsor Park Baptist Church (WPBC) in Northeast Austin for decades while raising their family. Additionally, John coached his sons' baseball teams, belonged to the Delwood Optimist Club of Northeast Austin, the Sertoma Club, and served in several capacities as a community volunteer and leader during his lifetime.

John's favorite hobbies were fishing, hunting, and golfing. In his spare time, John loved spending time with family and friends whether it be Church members, neighbors, or family reunions, gathering for his US WWII Navy Armed Guard reunions all over the US, watching the Houston Astros and the Dallas Cowboys. Being from Kentucky, he also cheered for any Kentucky and Cincinnati sports teams as well as watching the Kentucky Derby every year. John and Dolores played many games of 42 and 84 with family and good friends. The domino parties were always competitive, loud, and full of laughter from the joy of true friendships. John and Dolores also had an “Old Friends Supper Club” composed of their WPBC couple friends meeting once a month in each other’s homes to enjoy a meal and play games together.

In 1999, John and Dolores moved to Round Rock and transferred their membership from Hyde Park Baptist Church (which they joined after WPBC) to New Hope First Baptist Church in Cedar Park, Texas. There, they developed many WPBC-type relationships in their Senior Adult Sunday School Class. When John’s health began failing, their Round Rock Vista Oaks neighbor, Brook Hunt, cared for John and Dolores like a son attending to their lawn, garden and handyman needs. Also, during this time, their daughter, Dawn, attended to their weekly needs in their home as John and Dolores began to decline in health.

During the last few years of their 51 years in the Austin Area, John and Dolores’ health began to decline and they moved to the Cypress Area of Northwest Houston in September of 2017. This move enabled them to be near their Northwest Houston/Cypress area sons, Mark and John, their wives, and their children. Mark, and his wife Julie, faithfully and lovingly attended to their needs in their later years. Dolores and John were able to see their Houston grandchildren and great grandchildren during their final years after being near their daughter, Dawn, and her three children for decades.

Since July 2017, John and Dolores were residents of 4 different Assisting Living Homes (1 in Austin area, and 3 in the Northwest Houston area) and in and out of skilled nursing facilities and hospitals during this time. Regardless of their often-painful circumstances, John and Dolores continued to light up the lives of all who met them. They were the most loved and inspirational couple in all their communities. John and Dolores were often the only couple, and certainly a unique couple, celebrating their 67th, 68th and 69th wedding anniversaries while in assisted living. The Shirley family sincerely appreciates the love and care shown by the many assisted living administrators, nurses, hospice nurses, doctors, and caregivers during the last years of his life, most recently at North Houston Transitional Care since September 2019. Even in his last days when dementia had taken John’s total memory, John still touched the lives of his family and so many of his caregivers who came to say goodbye to him with tears in their eyes.

Beginning the evening of Wednesday, December 27, 2023, John was surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren along with friends of the family. He was lovingly cared for by the nurses, caregivers, and, since October 2019, his hospice care nurses, chaplains, and staff in his assisted living home in the Houston area. At the age of 85, John was diagnosed with Dementia. Even with his failing health, he remained a sweet, talkative man except for his last year when he grew quieter. His tenacious spirit, coupled with his faith, allowed John to overcome many of life’s adversities with peace. Until his final days, he was a difference maker in the lives of all he touched.

John is preceded in death by his loving wife of almost 70 years, Dolores Lampert Shirley, his parents, Roy Rand, and Nellie (nee Perkins) Shirley, brothers Floyd Shirley and Roy Shirley, Jr., and sisters Francis Coldwell and Vivian VanDyke. John's children, their spouses and his grandchildren were his greatest pride and joy. He often talked about them because he was proud of each one. John is survived by his four children and their spouses: Greg Shirley and wife, Carol, of North Carolina, John Shirley and wife, Ann, of Houston, Texas, Mark Shirley and wife, Julie, of Cypress, Texas, and Dawn Lanier and husband, Greg, of Austin, Texas.

From the marriages of his four children, 10 grandchildren were born. "Papa" was a wonderful grandfather to his precious grandchildren. Left to cherish his memory are Justin Scott Shirley, Allison Leigh Shirley Johnson, William Grant Shirley, Austin Miller Shirley, Matthew Charles Shirley, Blake Cochran Bohls, Chandler Marie Shirley, John Cade Shirley, Mason Lampert Bohls and Sarah Margaret Bohls Veasey. John is also survived by 11 great grandchildren: Maria Caroline Johnson, William Gregory Johnson, Luke Daniel Johnson, Owen Miller Shirley, William Emerson Shirley, Graham Austin Shirley, Virginia Mae Shirley, Grayson Charles Shirley, Dylan Hayes Shirley, Emma Kate Shirley, and Rosemary Anne Shirley.

John was always very optimistic about life and always looked for the positive side in every situation. He never met a stranger; his hearty laugh and wide smile allowed John to forge many significant relationships in all he did. John exuded a unique confidence through quips like "never lose your sense of humor”, “don’t take yourself too seriously”, “life is too short to be negative”, “everybody is your friend; let them decide if they want to be your enemy”, and often quoted Will Rogers, "A stranger is just a friend I haven't met yet." How blessed beyond measure we were to have Papa John in our lives. We look forward to eternity in Heaven with John, Dolores and a host of family members and friends someday.

A joyful Celebration of Life and Graveside Service will be gathering at 10:45 AM sharp on Friday, January 12, 2024, at Houston National Cemetery, 10410 Veterans Memorial Drive, Houston, TX 77038 in North Houston to join the procession by vehicle to John’s graveside where we honor John who fought the good fight, finished the race strong, and kept the faith focused on the prize of the crown of righteousness, which Jesus Christ has most assuredly awarded to him upon his homecoming in Heaven. Well done, good and faithful servant. John will also be honored and remembered for his 21 years of distinguished service to our great country in the United States Navy Armed Guard (1942 to 1945) and United States Air Force (1948 to 1966), with Full Military Honors.

For those attending the Graveside Service, please pull into Lane 1 at 10:45 AM after you enter the cemetery from TC Jester Boulevard. Service will start promptly at 11 AM. Military Honors will be rendered first.

In lieu of flowers, John’s desire was for donations to be made to the Wounded Warrior Project.