Shirley Jean Jacobs

November 17, 1929-January 13, 2017

A Celebration of Life Service is planned for 10:00 a.m. on Saturday January 28, 2017 at Acheson and Graham Garden of Prayer Mortuary 7944 Magnolia Ave. Riverside CA 92504.

Shirley was born in Elk City, Oklahoma. She was a gifted musician and vocalist with many academic achievements throughout her high school and college education. After earning her B.A. and Masters in education, she started her elementary teaching career in Portales, New Mexico. She decided to audition for the musical ‘Oklahoma” at Eastern New Mexico University because she felt the production could benefit from having a “real Okie” in the cast. She was cast in the lead female role opposite her future husband, George Leroy Jacobs. They married, moved to Artesia, New Mexico and started a family having two sons, Jeff and Jon.

Eventually, they followed their friends Lonnie and Dotti Hardgrave to Riverside, California in 1961. Shirley was a second grade teacher for 27 years at Collett Elementary in Alvord. She also became the school’s music director where she coordinated the Christmas, as well as The Sound of Music programs each year.

It was not uncommon to find her in the classroom playing the piano while consoling an upset student on her lap and the rest of her class singing their hearts out! Shirley was a lifelong Oklahoma University football and California Angels fan. She enjoyed playing bridge, and with her sister-in-law Adelia Beth Sanders as her partner they won numerous tournaments in western Oklahoma. When Leroy passed away in 1972, she raised two teenage boys by herself. Family was everything to Shirley and she loved having her boy’s friends at the house. She was a second mom to many of the neighborhood kids, but her greatest joy was her role as “Nanny J” to her grandsons Matthew, Bryant and Randon, as well as great-granddaughters Eleanor and Juniper.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that lasting gifts be made to Siempre Para Los Ninos (Only For The Children). This orphanage had a very special place in Shirley’s heart. For more information about donating in Shirley’s honor, please visit www.siempreKids.org.