Shirley J. McCully

Shirley Janice (Ordway) McCully

Shirley Janice (Ordway) McCully, 87, passed into a new life on June 8, 2021, at her home of 67 years. She was predeceased by her husband Ivan (Mac), her son, Larry, Frank & Berdie Ordway (parents), and her three sisters: Bobby Berryman, Louise Greever, Frances Hatcher, and 3 nieces.

Shirley is survived by daughter Cheryl (Sunny) and her husband Alvin (Nich) Nichelson, Brother-in-law Gael (Sarajane) McCully, Sister-in-law Sherry (McCully) Allton and Kay McCully, and eleven nieces and nephews.

Shirley was born in Davis City, Iowa on February 13, 1934, the youngest of four girls. The story goes that she was treated like a princess, and had the family nickname of “Lil Precious,’ She started playing piano at a young age, and her parents gave her the piano of her dreams. She shared her love of the piano with her daughter, and they spent many happy hours around it.

Music was an important part of Shirley’s life. She appreciated all genres, and she had a beautiful voice. But never ask her to sing the Little Drummer Boy! She always got her thrum, thrums mixed up! For years she sang in a Trio with Arlene Elliott, and Nadine Atherton, she sang in the church choir, played the bells, and the piano. She was a large supporter of the youth choir Celebration Singers, and often served as a chaperone on youth trips.

Both of her children were highly active, and she enjoyed going to swim meets, basketball games, skating practice and program, school performances, and any other activity they participated in.

During the time her kids were in school, she began selling Avon, door to door, meeting many new neighbors who quickly became friends. She was eventually promoted to a District Manager, but she missed the contact with her clients, and it took away time from the family. Her secretarial skills learned at Wichita State University assisted in her in move into a new career as a secretary, finally retiring from Operating Engineers #101 in order to help take care of her elderly mother. In 1984, Shirley lost her husband to cancer, and it shook her to the core. But she was a fighter, she did what had to be done, and held the family together.

Larry died in January 2003, and her mother followed quickly in April 2003. It was one of the hardest years in her life—but her whole family gathered around her, and she held on to her faith and love of all her family.

In the last two years she lost her two sisters-Louise in 2019, and Frances in 2021, and she never really recovered. As her health began to decline and her ability to do any of the things she loved so much, she grew tired, and wanted to be with her family. She wanted to return to the Noodle Palace.

What is the Noodle Palace? Glad you asked!

Welcome family and friends of the Noodle Palace. This is a story for the times. It begins in Davis City, Iowa with the Ordway family. There were Frank and Berdie, Velva Deane, Louise, Frances, and Shirley. Farm life was hard on Frank with only Berdie and four daughters. So, Frank packed his bags, and went searching for work, and he was hired at Wichita Boeing Company. He rented a small one-bedroom apartment and saved all his earnings to get “his girls” to be with him in Wichita.

In 1946, with the family all together, his plan complete, and his girls were with him once again. They were a close family and as each of the girls got older, and married, the family grew quickly. Velva Deane (Bobbie) and Jay lost their two children at a young age, but the other children got special attention. Louise and Don had one son (Kenneth) and one daughter (Donya), Frances had two girls (Linda and Donna), and Shirley had one boy (Larry) and one daughter (Cheryl).

Slowly some of the family moved to different states, for work and health reasons, but the family remained close.

Berdie (The Queen) kept all the family together after the King (Frank) passed away in 1986, continuing the tradition of family dinner every Sunday at the Noodle Palace. Each family dinner we had a huge dinner – for as few as two and as many as eighteen. The menu changed truly little in all these years: Beef and noodles, mashed potatoes, a vegetable, green salad and/or jello salad. There was also almost always dessert and a fresh tub of Cool Whip! The girls (the Princesses) were tasked with helping prepare the meal, serve, and clean up. But that did not last too long, as the Princesses in Training, Linda, Donna, Cheryl (Sunny), and Donya were in training mode. And as the Princesses in Training, they were soon setting the table, doing the dishes, putting it all way, and doing anything else that the Queen or Princesses wanted.

We lost our Queen on April 26, 2003, and just lost the youngest Princess June 8, 2021. The Princesses in Training are now left without their King, Queen, and the four Princesses. But they have learned well – They are reunited and setting up the New Noodle Palace in preparation for the Princesses in Training to join them.