Shirley Brown Dillard

Daughter of the late Norman F. Brown and Tola Rogers Brown, Shirley was born in Mobile, Alabama on September 10, 1935.

At the age of sixteen, Shirley received her diploma from Murphy High School and enrolled at Auburn University. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in chemistry in 1956 and a Master’s Degree in chemistry in 1958. Shirley loved science and sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject. After college, she worked in her field of study and also taught chemistry to high school and college students. Her longest tenure involved conducting pharmacological research at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. She retired in 1995.

Shirley was very family oriented. She loved spending quality time with her family and caring for them. Cooking was her passion and she enjoyed preparing special dishes for bake sales, potluck events, and everyday family meals. Shirley loved collecting recipes and experimenting with new ones for friends and family.

Shirley was an incredible seamstress and spent an entire summer designing and sewing an elaborate antebellum dress for her daughter Diana.

Family vacations to the beach, hosting holiday gatherings, and tending to her garden were activities she thoroughly enjoyed.

Along with her parents, Shirley is preceded in death by her brother, Andy Brown and sister-in-law, Betty Brown.

She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Doyle M. Dillard Jr; children, Diana (Bill) Brewer, Matt (Jillian) Dillard and Jeanie (Jamie) Scott; grandchildren, Ashley (Blake) Hudson, Alex (Lucy) Brewer, Daisy Dillard, Henry Dillard, Katie (Patrick) Bowyer, Alyssa Scott, and Ryan Scott; great grandchildren, Eva Mae Hudson and Liza Anne Hudson; sister, Jeanette (Glenn) Wimpee; brother, Roger Brown; and extended family members and friends to cherish her memory.

A funeral service to honor Mrs. Shirley Dillard will be held on Saturday, July 16, 2022 at two o’clock in the afternoon at HM Patterson Canton Hill in Marietta, Georgia. Friends are cordially invited for visitation an hour and a half before the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to the American Heart Association.

HM Patterson Canton Hill is honored to serve the Dillard family during this difficult time.