Shirley Lucille Weingarten

Shirley Lucille Weingarten (nee Bowersox) passed away peacefully, surrounded in love, in her home of almost 48 years on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, just ten days after celebrating her 96th birthday. She was born on Saturday, October 3, 1925 in her beloved hometown of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Shirley was an active little girl who loved spending time outside roller skating, bicycling, hiking with her Mother and friends near the Susquehanna River, and talking with family and friends on the front porch of her childhood home. She liked to spend what little money she had as a child at a candy store near her home. Her love of candy most definitely continued throughout her life. Her life was defined at an early age by her faith, the love of her family and friends, and service to others. She was baptized and grew up attending the First Evangelical Church in Sunbury. Each Sunday, her family would go to church and then later in the day, they would visit members of their large and loving extended family – aunts, uncles, and cousins – in nearby towns. There were many special relatives, but none more beloved to Shirley than her dear Aunt Nen (Jennie Hackenberg). While Shirley’s childhood was filled with much love and happiness, there were also hard times. During the flood of 1936, Shirley’s family home was flooded and possessions were lost. While they were rescued by boat and taken to a Red Cross shelter, for a short time, they were reported as missing by the authorities. Sadly, at the age of 15, Shirley lost her Mom very suddenly to cancer. In addition to her loving Father, her Aunt Nen and several of her other special aunts stepped in and provided her with tremendous love and support. Whenever there was a need, there was always a family member to help. Shirley graduated from Sunbury High School in 1943. She then worked in different jobs in Sunbury and in Philadelphia in the hotel, airline, and interior design industries before eventually moving to the Baltimore area to live with her sister and brother-in-law. While living in Towson, she met her husband, Murray, who she married on April 30, 1955. 

Shirley and Murray shared a beautiful life with 61 years of marriage before Murray’s death in 2016. They had two children, Steven and me. Murray’s career took the family from Maryland to California to the state of Washington before heading back home to Maryland. Murray and Shirley even spent a brief period living part-time in Boise, Idaho at the end of Murray’s career. Shirley saw each move as an adventure, a chance to see and experience new places and new things, meet new people, and make new friends, many of whom she loyally stayed in touch with for life. She had a flair for interior design and was an avid collector of antiques, particularly majolica. She enjoyed decorating each new home as the family moved and did so beautifully. She created the most loving homes, offering a stable, supportive, and nurturing launching pad for Murray’s success at work and her children’s success in school, sports, and other activities. Shirley was an entertainer extraordinaire, hosting parties, dinners, and cookouts with family and friends and decorating for every holiday and special occasion imaginable. Shirley’s Christmas decorations were particularly magical. Her house was truly a Christmas wonderland, straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Like her interior design sense, Shirley had great taste in clothes and was a fashionable dresser, always glamorous, elegant, and full of grace. She was truly beautiful on the inside and outside.   

Shirley loved to travel and see and experience new places. When the family lived out west, they visited several of the National Parks including the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Yosemite. A few of Shirley’s many adventures included white water rafting in Idaho and Colorado, horseback riding in Vermont and Montana, attending the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, cruising the Mississippi river, driving across the U.S., and taking a train partway across Canada. Some of her very favorite places were Carmel-by-the-Sea in California, Nantucket, Bermuda, and Alaska. One of her favorite overseas trips was to Germany to visit the towns from which her ancestors had immigrated, Hackenberg, Germany and Weingarten, Germany. (That’s right. The Bowersox side of the family came from a town in Germany called Weingarten. They traveled to the U.S. on a boat called the Betsy. The family knew none of this until the late 1980s.) Shirley’s travel ultimately took her to all 50 states and over 20 countries. She passed her love of travel and adventure on to me.

Shirley remained active throughout her entire life, starting back when she was the little blond girl who roller skated all over Sunbury and who once biked nearly 20 miles from Sunbury to Mifflinburg to see her Aunt Nen and then back again. As an adult, her favorite and most frequent forms of exercise were tennis and walking. Most of her tennis years were played at the family’s beloved Forest Hill Swim & Tennis Club. She was legendary at Forest Hill for playing several hours of tennis in 90 plus degree heat and extreme humidity and still coming off the court without a hair out of place and make-up still perfectly applied. She was an avid walker up until close to the end of her life. She’s probably logged more miles around the “long block” in her Dunloggin neighborhood than any other human on earth. Shirley’s characteristic positivity and commitment to fitness served her well throughout her life, particularly, in her later years as she battled several serious health issues with stunning strength, courage, and resilience. Additionally, Shirley was an avid sports fan. By far, she most enjoyed watching her children and grandsons play sports, but she also enjoyed watching professional tennis, the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Colts, and the Baltimore Ravens. 

Serving and giving to others was a trait modeled and engrained in Shirley at a young age by her family. Shirley’s life was one of service to her church, to charitable organizations, to her family, to her friends, and to complete strangers. Over the years at her church, First Presbyterian Church of Howard County, where she was a long-term member, Shirley served as a Deacon, volunteered in the nursery, taught Sunday School, and cooked for the church’s homeless shelter. At Forest Hill, Shirley was a Board member overseeing the club’s teen night events. For many years, she walked her neighborhood collecting money for the American Heart Association, which allowed her to keep in touch with neighbors while raising money for a good cause. Perhaps, most remarkable, however, was the way she gave to individuals she met along the way like a homeless man who touched her heart in Boise, Idaho, a housekeeper named Corrine who worked with the family in the 1960s who Shirley helped until the end of her life in the 1990s, and neighbors, especially children, for whom she bought gifts for holidays and special occasions. Shirley loved to buy and give gifts to anyone and everyone. Where there was a need, Shirley was always present.

Shirley’s faith in God was the defining cornerstone of her life that guided how she lived. She read the Bible cover to cover multiple times. She could rival many pastors in terms of her ability to recite scripture. She would claim that she could not sing, but she knew the words to countless hymns. She said the most beautiful prayers all the way up until her final days on earth. During her later years, when it was difficult for her to read due to failing eyesight, and during Covid, when she was unable to attend church, she enjoyed listening to Bible readings with her beloved caretaker, Louise, and her son, Steven. First Corinthians 13 verse 13 reads “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Shirley loved deeply, purely, profoundly, and generously every day of her 96 years and ten days on this earth.

Shirley is survived by her beloved children, Steven (Martha) and Betsy; her grandsons, Steven and Dwight Weingarten; her nieces and nephews Charlotte Pullara (Charles), Rose Roush, Kaethe Weingarten (Hilary Worthen), Jan Greenberg (Lester), and Ella Iams (Howard) as well as many grand nieces and nephews. Shirley is predeceased by her beloved husband, Murray; her parents, Phenius Charles (P.C.) and Charlotte (Lottie) Bowersox; her sister Charlotte Roush (Joseph); her nephew, Rod Roush; her niece, Rachel DeVries; and many beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. 

Donations can be made in Shirley’s memory to the University of Maryland Department of Radiation Oncology Virtual Needs Pantry (ummsfoundation.org/giving_pantry) or to the First Presbyterian Church of Howard County (www.firstpreshc.org). 

Out of respect for those who are immunocompromised and those who are caretakers for the immunocompromised, we ask that masks be worn at Shirley’s viewing and at her funeral service. 

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