Shirley Jean Carvalho

Shirley Jean Carvalho, the only child of Ethel P. and Robert T. Bourne, took her first breath on a prairie farm in Jewell County, Kansas on Sept. 1, 1933, and breathed her last on Jan. 22, 2022 in the arms of her husband and comfort of her home.

On the farm her nearest neighbors lived one mile away and the only child in that family was an older boy. She attended a one-room rural grammar school and was the only student in her class.  Her responsibilities on the farm were to help her mother in the house, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, scoop up corn cobs to burn in the kitchen stove, keep herself occupied, and stay away from the bull. One time she decided to keep herself occupied by teasing the bull. It chased her and she tried to hide in the wedge space between an open barn door and the barn’s side. The bull butted the door, squeezing her until her father was able to rescue her.

When Shirley was twelve her parents moved to Superior, Nebraska, just across the state line from Jewell County. Her father bought an 18-wheel semi and became a livestock hauler. She baked cakes and sold them to a café in town. Soon after her sixteenth birthday she learned how to drive her father’s truck and when school was not in-session she would travel with him to pick up livestock in the area surrounding Superior and haul them to stockyards in Omaha and Kansas City. Occasionally at truck stops other haulers would tease Bob about how well his truck drove while he slept.

At Superior High School she studied Latin, English, and Bookkeeping. Her favorite sport was drag racing a Pastor’s son and she always won because she could double-clutch and he couldn’t. She became the editor of the student newspaper and her class yearbook, and won a trip to Chicago with her teacher to attend a student editor conference.

Very soon after high school graduation, she attended Nebraska State Teachers College and became accredited to teach in a rural grammar school, just as her mother had done. Her first teaching job was in a school with no furnace, no running water, windows that rattled with every breeze, a floor with loose boards, and one boy in the eighth grade who was bigger than her. The challenges of hauling water daily, and wood for the potbelly stove in cold weather, and talking above the noise of the windows, and teaching twelve students in grades 1- 8 were more than her health could tolerate, so after one school year she accepted a job as accountant in an automobile dealership that was financially troubled because of accounting irregularities. She cleaned up the mess and after two years decided she would rather work with people than numbers but she never lost her accounting skills. In the 1990’s when she was living in Athens, Ohio she cleaned up the accounting mess in a local furniture retailer so the woman-owner, who lived next door, could exit the business gracefully.

In 1954 she entered the Lincoln General Hospital School of Nursing. On Sept. 25, 1954 she attended a USO dance at Lincoln Air Force Base with her nursing school roommate, met Gerard and married him 3 months and 3 weeks later on Jan. 15, 1955, a sunny and warm day, a day symbolic of her disposition. Together they negotiated life for 67 years and 7 days, were blessed with six sons, Gerard J., Clark R., Jeffrey P., Christopher A., Philip S., and Alexander J., and enjoyed watching their children, 11 grandchildren, 4 step-grandchildren, one adopted grandson, and three great-grandchildren, grow into beautiful people. She is preceded in death by a grandson.  She spent considerable time and energy being a foster mother and advocate for children in foster care.  

Shirley’s character and demeanor were formed in large part by her early life on the prairie. She never knew boredom and was always busy doing something. Her Portuguese soup and grasshopper pie were family favorites, and her sandwiches always had an extra ingredient – love. Her holiday cookies, pies and turkey never lasted long and every day meals were always nutritious and flavorful, except for one experiment she tried on her sons while her husband was away on business. She enjoyed cross-word puzzles, camping, beachcombing, and extended stays in foreign three-star hotels so she could experience the cultures of England, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, and Mexico.

Shirley had an unforgettable sense of humor, used puns and witticisms to share her wisdom, was unassuming and never wanted to be the center of attention, loved others unconditionally, and was patient and gentle with humans and animals alike, except the bull.

Shirley’s spiritual home in Utah was the Newman Center adjacent to the University of Utah campus from 1969-1980 and from 1998 till she left her family and friends to be with God.  A communal memorial service and a private family service will be held on Mother’s Day weekend because three of her six sons were born in May. Details will be announced later. In lieu of flowers please send your tax-deductible contributions to the Foster Club at www.fosterclub.com or by clicking the “Donate” button above.