Shirley Lee Stavast

Shirley Lee Metzger Stavast, formerly of Austin, TX passed away peacefully on April 29, 2015 at her home at Air Force Village II, San Antonio, TX. Shirley was born on November 29, 1932, in Eugene, Oregon to Dorothy Gruwell and George Alden Metzger.

Shirley attended Hillsdale College, MI for two years, then transferred to Michigan State, East Lansing, where she obtained a B.A. in Drama and Theater. After graduation, Shirley moved to Pasadena, CA, where she obtained a M.A. in Education from Claremont College. She taught first grade elementary school for three years in Claremont, and in 1959 signed on with the U.S. Department of Defense Schools for a teaching position at Laon Air Base in France. The night she arrived in Laon, she met John E. Stavast, an Air Force pilot. Shirley and John dated while they were stationed in Laon, but then parted ways. After Laon, Shirley’s DOD teaching career took her to Tokyo and Bermuda. In 1965, having left DOD schools and returned to Claremont to teach, she and John reconnected, and, after a brief courtship, they were married on July 9, 1966. In May, 1967, John, then a USAF Major, was assigned to the RF-4 Phantom Jet squadron of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, to fly recon missions over North Vietnam. On September 17, 1967, John’s RF-4 was shot down by an enemy surface to air missile near Hanoi, and he was declared Missing in Action (MIA) by the U.S. John and his navigator, Gerald Venanzi, survived the crash, were captured and imprisoned in Hanoi until their release on March 14, 1973. The North Vietnamese government withheld all information about John’s fate until April, 1970, two and a half years after he was shot down.

When John was declared MIA, Shirley, joined other POW-MIA families in a hard fought campaign to locate and support the POW-MIAs. She became active with the National League of Families of United States Prisoners of War and Mission in Action in Southeast Asia, and campaigned relentlessly throughout the U.S. to bring attention to the mistreatment of imprisoned POW-MIAs. With Voices in Vital America, she originated the Freedom Tree Program in which over 300 trees were planted nationwide to stand vigil for POW-MIAs until their return. Between 1969 and 1970, Shirley spent six months in Europe garnering international support for humanitarian treatment of POW-MIAs. She obtained an audience with Prime Minister Olaf Palme of Sweden and it was through Palme that she received word that confirmed that her husband was alive as a POW. She later attended the Paris Peace talks on behalf of the POW-MIAs.

Colonel John Stavast resumed active duty upon his return from Vietnam in 1973. In 1980, after their last assignment at Bergstrom AFB, the Stavasts retired to Austin, TX. The Stavasts were founding members of Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church. Upon John’s death in 2004, Shirley moved to Air Force Village II in San Antonio where she lived until her passing.

Shirley is preceded in death by her parents, George and Dorothy Gruwell Metzger; her husband, Colonel John E. Stavast and sister, Marilyn Metzger Wilson. She is survived by niece Marty Wilson; nephews Mark, Michael and Matthew Wilson; and cousins Jeannie Gruwell Culbertson, Cathy Gruwell Marin, Marianne Gruwell Gutierrez and David Gruwell.

The family wishes to express their deepest appreciation to Air Force Village Hospice, the care givers at Griswold and Nix Homecare, and especially the AFV Liberty House staff for their dedicated and loving care throughout the time she lived there.

Graveside service will be at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, TX, Friday, May 8, 2015 at 10:30 am. Condolences may be offered at www.sunsetfuneralhomesa.com.