Shirley May Klingsmith

Shirley May Smiley was born April 28, 1935, in Edgewater, Colorado, to Gordon and Dulah (Overby) Smiley. Shirley was the youngest surviving child of the Smiley’s seven children. She grew up in Englewood, Colorado, with her parents and four sisters. Her loving mother introduced her to Jesus at a young age. Shirley attended Englewood High School and then followed her sister, Virginia, to Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, where she graduated with her degree in Christian Education in 1957.

Miss Smiley returned to Denver, taught school and then was the church secretary at Judson Baptist Church. She was set up on a blind date with a young widower and father of two. He swept her off her feet and she married Fredrick (Ted) Klingsmith, from Roswell, New Mexico, in August of 1959. In an instant, she became wife and mother and the family of four began a life of ministry: Ted, Shirley, Scott (1955), and Barbara (1958).

Ted and Shirley pastored the Gospel Baptist Church (1961-63) in Springfield, Colorado, before taking leadership of the Denver Christian Servicemen’s Center. The Servicemen’s Center was a hospitality ministry where service members came for respite and encouragement.

While in Denver, the Klingsmiths welcomed three more daughters, Gayleen (1961), Janell (1964), and Deborah (1965).

Shirley was creative. Her story can be told through the things she made.

She loved to make music: playing piano and even enjoying a stint as the drum majorette of her school marching band. She made sure music filled the house, which was not too hard when she had five kids practicing the piano and a second instrument every day! Shirley initiated hymn sings for the servicemen and concerts whenever possible.

Shirley loved to also make things with her hands. She sewed clothes for the kids, including bathing suits for the girls and the bridesmaids' dresses for six family weddings. All the curtains in the house (and the 1970s van) and tablecloths for the servicemen’s center were her handiwork. Every season had appropriate table decorations for the many dining tables, and she painted and repainted the house/center many times! Beautiful flower gardens surrounded each home she filled with love. Many of her grandkids wore costumes she made for school and church stage performances, but the most treasured of her projects were the eighteen quilts she created, one for each of her grandchildren.

Shirley made a home, not just for her family, but for hundreds of servicemen and women whom she served at the Denver Christian Servicemen’s Center. (As a teenager, she made sandwiches for the men at the center when it was a storefront downtown ministry.) She prepared a million meals and washed even more dishes, celebrated birthdays of young people she’d never see again, and had spare Christmas presents under the tree for the unexpected guest who always seemed to show up. The black and white, neatly labeled Polaroids of guests from the Servicemen’s Center could paper a small art gallery.

In 1994 Lowry Air Force Base closed, and the Klingsmiths moved to Windsor Gardens having transitioned to full-time ministers with the Windsor Chapel. They served the Chapel together until 2017.

Shirley worked side by side with Ted making Windsor Chapel a welcoming place for believers and non-believers alike. She loved people well. Her years of office management came in handy as she prepared the bulletins, arranged for Bible Study and typed Ted’s sermons. He used to say his sermons improved when she started typing/editing them for him.

Shirley and Ted made numerous international trips to visit their children and grandchildren around the world. She made quite an impression on the officials in Bermuda when she arrived without a passport! Somehow, she charmed her way in and out of the country. (She did make an application for a passport for future trips.) The truth was her heart was for the gospel to reach every corner of the world. Traveling there herself was just a bonus.

Most consistently of all, Shirley made places for people to meet Jesus. In her early teens, she used to accompany a teacher to a tent city near the railroad tracks of Denver. Shirley and this elder would hold Sunday School for the children. At the Servicemen’s Center, she hosted backyard Bible clubs every summer and organized a bus to pick up neighborhood kids for church activities. She served more coffee, meals and desserts than one can imagine, creating a welcoming space where she and Ted could share the gospel. (There are memories of actual miracles happening where a limited amount of food fed an unlimited number of men!) She mentored young military wives and was the surrogate mom to many young people away from home for the first time.

Of all the things Shirley loved, her greatest passion was for her husband, Ted. She made him happy. Neither Ted nor Shirley had an example of a loving, stable marriage in their childhoods. Their marriage was a testimony to what God will create with two lives submitted to Him.

Shirley is survived by her children: Scott (Chery), Barbara Larson (Ron), Gayleen Gardner (Gentry), Janell Murray and Deborah Brewster; and her sisters-in-law Shirley Ann Klingsmith and Eileen Chester. She loved and prayed for her 18 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. She found great joy in her many nieces, nephews, and their children.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, Fredrick Klingsmith, grandson Garrett Gardner, daughter-in-law Carol Klingsmith, Ted and Shirley’s eight siblings and many of their spouses.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.olingerchapelhill.com for the Klingsmith family.

A celebration of life service for Shirley will be held 1:00 PM, June 7, 2025, Windsor Gardens Center Point, 595 S. Clinton, Denver 80247

Memorial gifts may be made in Shirley’s honor to Serve Now's Tailoring Skills project. Serve Now trains at-risk women in Asia, Africa, and Europe to run their own tailoring business and escape human traffickers. On-line donations may be made at https://weservenow.org/shirley-klingsmith-memorial/ or mailed to:

Serve Now

5142 N. Academy Blvd

#153

Colorado Springs, CO 80918