Shirley Insall Pieratt

Shirley Insall Pieratt was truly a remarkable woman whose most enduring legacy will be the books that she wrote about her ancestors’ lives. Shirley was also a fascinating paradox who was politically conservative but also maintained relationships with a diverse group of friends. While Shirley claimed to have been a wallflower as a child, as an adult Shirley was confident, never shy and always equipped to engage in any conversation or debate on a wide variety of topics.

Having been a newspaper reporter and photographer, Shirley was a researcher to the core. She traveled the backroads and byways of the Texas Hill Country and beyond in search of records to write four family history books. She visited courthouses, cemeteries, relatives who provided firsthand stories of their family’s lives, and old railroad tracks and country fields, where few remnants remained of the lives that had once been lived there. Shirley’s books serve as an important segue between past and present generations.

Shirley was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 8, 1935, to Clarence Cade Insall and Frances Stalcup Insall. Her early years were spent in the Texas Hill Country in San Antonio; Hollywood, California; and Guatemala City, Guatemala, where her father worked collecting burls and fine wood for export. Shirley graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, San Antonio College, and the University of Texas at Austin where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Throughout her school days she wrote for school newspapers including the Daily Texan. After graduation from UT Shirley worked as a reporter and photographer for the Corpus Christi Caller Times.

After marriage and a move to Houston, Texas, Shirley followed her passions for history, genealogy, photography, art, and travel, as well as for collecting and trading antiques, American Indian artifacts and Latin American folk art.

Collecting and antiquing led Shirley through Texas barns and flea markets, and many trips to New Mexico and Arizona Indian reservations and markets. Shirley’s trading provided her with her income, and she adapted her trading and inventory based on market trends and the availability of desirable antiques, art and collectibles.

Shirley’s genealogy research was conducted throughout Texas and traced back to North Carolina. She explored photography and art in the USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Costa Rica and France. Shirley learned Spanish while living in Guatemala, and spoke and studied the Spanish language throughout her life.

Shirley loved nature, animals - especially cats, and the Texas Hill Country homes and haunts of her Insall family. The Indian Springs Ranch on the Guadalupe River was truly her happy place. Shirley carried her camera and sketch pad wherever she travelled to record what she saw and experienced.

Shirley’s final years were spent in Austin, Texas, to be near her family. Shirley was preceded in death by her husband Frank Pieratt and she is survived by her sons John Deviney and Lee Deviney and his wife Lauri and her grandsons Cade, Zane and Wyatt Deviney.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, January 17th at 11 am at Sunset Funeral Home; 1701 Austin Hwy; San Antonio, TX 78218.