Mrs. Shirley Ann McKinney Dodson's Obituary
Shirley Dodson Shirley Ann McKinney Dodson, 76, went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Tuesday, June 12 after a brief battle with lung cancer. Shirley was born on March 21, 1936 in Diboll, Texas. She was born on the first day of spring, and she fittingly brought sunshine to the lives of many people. She married Maurice (Skip) Dodson on January 10, 1974, and became an instant mother to three strong-willed teenage boys. She loved to tell funny stories about her early "adventures" in her newly made family, but she loved those boys and always felt humbled and honored to step in and fill the void left by the death of their mother two years prior. Shirley earned her Bachelor's degree in Education at East Texas Baptist College in 1958, and went on to teach elementary school for over 30 years in the public school systems in Diboll, El Paso, and Houston Cy-Fair. In 1965, she spent a year teaching at the Lincoln School for missionary children in Guadalajara, Mexico. Shirley later earned her Masters of Library Science at Sam Houston State University, and spent more than 20 years as a librarian in the Cy-Fair district at Jowell Elementary and then at First Baptist Academy. She was most recently librarian at Houston's First Baptist Church. Shirley was passionate about books. She loved to talk about books, give books as gifts, and share books she had read with others. She was recently able to combine her passion for books with her love of traveling when she went to Oxford, England to assist a team with cataloging a library, and then to Hawaii where she helped start a new church library. Shirley's other passion in recent years has been the Houston's First Baptist Church Monday GPS, a ministry designed to meet the needs of adults diagnosed with early to moderate stages of memory loss due to dementia, stroke or injury. She and her dear friend, Linda, began this ministry shortly after their husbands were diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. Even after the death of her husband two years ago, Shirley remained committed to the now thriving ministry and loved helping those afflicted with memory loss and their caregivers. Even in the last weeks of her life when she herself was hospitalized, meeting the needs of her dear friends in the ministry was a top priority. Shirley is survived by her sons Glenn, Bill and Phil and their wives Beverly, Allison and Kristi; grandchildren Nikki, Bethany, Shannon, Will and Nicholas; sister Lilly Faye Wisdom and her husband Charles; niece Carla Robinson and her husband Scott, nieces Rose Wisdom, Barbara McKinney and Beverly McKinney Vaugh; nephew Benton McKinney; and great-nephews Will, Neal and Caleb Robinson, and Dylan McKay. She is predeceased by her husband of 35 years, Maurice; her parents Van and Oneta McKinney, brother Bill McKinney, and nephew Van Wisdom. A memorial service in Shirley's honor will be held on Monday, June 18 at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel at Houston's First Baptist Church. A reception will immediately follow in the adjacent reception room. Memorial donations may be made to Monday GPS, Houston's First Baptist Church, 7401 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77024.
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