Oct. 23, 1926 - Mar. 23, 2026
ALBION – For all of our family, friends, and loved ones who knew Shirley, you will understand and appreciate how important it was for her, to be able to tell her own story. She was adamant about her voice, her memories, and her spirit to be shared in her own words. What follows is exactly that, her words, just as she wished them to be remembered.
I was born in Franklin, Idaho, on October 23, 1926, the first child of Cyril K. And Fern Porter Lowe. In the coming years they had two boys, Jim in 1929, and Jerry in 1933, a girl, Carole in 1937, then two more boys, Mike in 1945, and Ron in 1947. We all grew up in Cherryville, a small farming community about three miles northeast of Franklin. I graduated from Franklin High School in 1944.
Shortly after graduating, I accepted my first job (besides baby-sitting and apple picking), as a soda jerk at the Peach City Ice Cream Parlor in Brigham City, Utah, owned by friends who had previously been neighbors of ours in Franklin. The Peach City later combined with Hollywood Café and I was promoted to waitress. I worked off and on at The Hollywood in Brigham City in the summer. It was there in the summer of 1949 that I met Vernal J. “Jack” Lund who had just returned home after spending two years as a gunner’s mate in the Navy.
In February of 1951 we eloped to Las Vegas. Jack was employed as an airplane mechanic at Hill Air Force Base and I was able to get a job there also. In November I took a short break from work to give birth to our son, Kenneth J. Lund.
When Jack had an opportunity to work at a new phosphate plant that had just gone into production in Soda Springs, we decided to check it out. He had always wanted to live in Idaho because of the fishing/hunting opportunities there, and of course, I did not mind moving back to my home state. In December of 1953, we gathered up our two-year-old son, all of our meager belongings, and moved to Soda Springs.
Jack went to work as an electrician for Monsanto in May of 1954. We bought a house in one of the new housing projects, and there we stayed for the next 57 years. Our daughter, Kathy, was born on October 4, 1954, and another daughter Sally Ann, died at birth in August of 1959.
A year after Sally Ann’s death, I had an opportunity to go to work at the Soda Springs Ranger District of the Caribou National Forest. This job involved various aspects of forest management and was very fulfilling and fun. In the 30 years that I worked there, I traveled to several interesting places, including Washington D.C., and met many unforgettable people, some of whom became life-long friends. I retired in 1990.
With time on my hands after retirement, I decided to pursue a life-long desire to write. I started by writing humorous stories from numerous notes I had taken through the years about our fishing an hunting escapades; a non-sportsman-female’s perspective of the curious world of dedicated sportsmen. These stories were well received by friends and family, and some were published in various sporting magazines. I also wrote and published a book about my pioneer ancestors and another children’s book about a dog.
By some miracle I survived an acute cardiac arrest in December of 2001. My husband kept me alive with CPR until the paramedics arrived. They shocked me back to life four times before they got me to a hospital. They, and all the doctors at Portneuf Medical Center, said it was nothing short of a miracle that I survived. My husband, my children, and my brothers, my sisters, my church family, and many friends supported me through the three weeks I was in the hospital. I will never be able to thank them enough for sacrificing their Christmas of 2001 and New Years of 2002, all of them driving many miles in the middle of winter to visit me. Sometimes God does send you a miracle to remind you how much love others have for you, and in return, how much love you have for them.
Jack had retired from Monsanto in 1983 due to poor health. In the coming years he had a mild stroke and several operations, including a quadruple heart bypass. In 2008 he had another stroke that partially paralyzed him. He spent many weeks in various hospitals and seven months in a nursing home where he died on October 19, 2009, just four months short of our 60th anniversary. One year after Jack’s death, I moved to Albion.
This is a very abbreviated version of my life, but there’s so much more to the story. How do you condense 99 years of love and happiness, trial and tribulation, joy and sorrow, into a few short paragraphs?
I was preceded in death by my parents and three younger brothers, Mike, Jim, and Jerry, and my son Ken. Those I had to leave behind for now are, my daughter Kathy and her husband Nate, sister Carol, brother Ron, five grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
The best part of me is now safe in the arms of Jesus.
To my beloved children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and to all my family and friends; weeping inconsolably by a grave will not bring me back, nor can any blessing come out of such sadness. Brooding over our sorrow only deepens the darkness about us, creeps into our heart and our strength changes to weakness. If you must bury something, let it be my weaknesses, my imperfections, and my prejudices. Give all my sins to Satan and my soul to my Savior. Remember me with a kind deed to those in need or a word of encouragement to someone in despair. If you do all this in memory of me, I will be with you forever.
To Those I love: When I am gone, just release me, let me go, so I can move into my after glow. You mustn’t tie me down with doleful tears, let’s just be happy that we had so many years. I gave you all my love, but you can only guess how much you gave me back in happiness. I thank you for the love you each have shown, but now it’s time I traveled alone. So grieve for me awhile, if grieve you must, then let your grief be comforted with trust. It’s only for a while that we must part, so keep memories of me within your heart, and then, when you must come this way alone, I’ll greet you with a smile, and a WELCOME HOME!
A celebration of life will be celebrated a later date this summer.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Rasmussen-Wilson Funeral Home of Burley.
