Weathers, Shirley M. (nee Poepping) loved chocolate, licorice, a good glass of Chardonnay and, most of all, her late husband, Len Weathers, and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, including Mary Buttice, Lenly (Sara Wehrmann) Weathers, Peg (the late Doug Schell) Weathers, Katherine (Dan Schroder) Weathers, and Sally (Tim) Zetzman, grandchildren Joe (LeAnne) Buttice, Claire (Michael) Smith, Thomas and Matthew Weathers, Jack and Emily Schroder, and Rose and John Zetzman, and great-grandchildren, Bella and Gwen Buttice.
She attended Sts. Mary & Joseph School and graduated in 1945 from Notre Dame High School. At Notre Dame she learned typing and shorthand, skills at which she excelled and used throughout her professional life. While working in the Pierce Building at her first secretarial job, she and Lenly noticed each other in the elevator. But it wasn’t until she left that job that she and Len were fixed up on a blind date. Two years after that first date (“I was so glad to open the door and see it was your father!”) they were married at Sts. Mary & Joseph Catholic Church, sharing 61 years together, before Len passed away in 2014. Shirley, surrounded by her family, joined him Monday, February 11. Len and Shirley are back together as they should be.
Shirley was born into a politically active family, as the great-granddaughter of Bernard Poepping, the last Mayor of Carondelet. She raised her family in the Poepping’s Carondelet home which had served as the Law office of her great-great grandfather, Judge Wilson Primm. Her family by birth and marriage was a political bunch, and Shirley took politics seriously. She was a staunch Democrat and faithful Catholic. She and Len were grateful they lived to see an African American in the White House and a Jesuit as Pope. On weeknights you could find them watching the PBS NewsHour, and Thursday evening’s schedule was set by the airing of Donneybrook.
Shirley was beautiful, funny and smart. She loved reading and became a lifelong fan of crime fiction, starting as a young child reading crime magazines on her front porch. She was a weekly patron of the St. Louis Public Library, either in Carondelet or at the Downtown branch, across from the Missouri Pacific Railroad Building, where she was an executive secretary in the Claims Department for 20 years.
She had few vices -- she didn’t gossip, never smoked cigarettes, and very rarely cursed. “Dirty word!” was her family’s cue that she was irked. Shirley was genuinely easy-going, but had a strong opinion about a “half-assed job” -- which her children knew too well. She loved animals and began feeding neighborhood cats which, one day, began showing up at her backdoor, ultimately running a cat short-order diner from early morning to late at night. Any cat who showed up could count on getting a good square meal from “Shirley M.”
Services: Saturday, 02/23/19, Visitation 10am - 1pm, Hoffmeister Mortuary, 6464 Chippewa, proceeding to Sts. Mary & Joseph Church, 6304 Minnesota, for 2pm Mass. In lieu of flowers, please send gifts to St. Louis Public Library or follow this link: https://www.slpl.org/slpl-foundation/tribute-gifts/
