Shirley Ann Persun

Shirley Ann Persun, 87, of Port Orange, Florida, was born on December 10, 1938, and passed away on August 29, 2026.

Shirley was predeceased by her mother, Mary Margaret Bertram Coley, and her father, Richard Edward Coley, and by her siblings Elsie Marie Coley, Richard Edward Coley, Jr., and Delores Grace Coley Maloney.

She is survived by her husband of over six decades, Dennis Ray Persun (Port Orange, FL); her daughter, Cherie Kaye Persun (Ormond Beach, FL); and her siblings Gloria June Walker (Altoona, PA), James Anthony Coley (Hollidaysburg, PA), and William Robert Coley (Ocean Isle Beach, NC), along with the many nieces and nephews who adored her.

Shirley was born and raised in the Juniata section of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and attended Altoona High School. In her senior year, in 1958, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Shirley took a part-time job to help support the family. Her mother died later that same year. Rather than pursue her own dream of a career in medicine, Shirley chose to stay home — raising her younger siblings, caring for the household, supporting her father through his grief, and continuing to work to help keep the family afloat. At just nineteen, suddenly in charge of a house full of children, she came up with her own creative brand of discipline: she would tell her siblings she was from Mars, that she had eyes in the back of her head, and that she could see everything. They believed her completely.

Four years later, in 1962, with her siblings older, Shirley's father began dating Dennis's mother — and it was through that new family connection that Shirley met the love of her life, Dennis. Asked to describe what he felt for her, Dennis has always reached for a line from The Bridges of Madison County: "This kind of certainty only comes along once in a lifetime." They married on July 11, 1963, and the newlyweds settled first in Fairview, near Altoona. Leaving her hometown for Ohio wasn't easy, and Shirley shared a good, long cry with her sister Gloria before she and Dennis made the move. Once they arrived in Ohio, Shirley enrolled in a hospital's X-ray technician training program, eager to build a career of her own. She had once been told by a doctor that she would likely never be able to have children, so it came as a joyful surprise when she became pregnant with Cherie — and, true to the selflessness that defined her whole life, Shirley chose family over the career she had just begun, leaving the program to embrace motherhood. She spent the next 54 years raising her family, working as a clerk/typist in the manufacturing industry, and turning every house they lived in into a home — filled with her own crewel-stitch and cross-stitch artwork, including a piece stitched just for her daughter Cherie that still hangs above her mirror today, asking that she be blessed and kept. Shirley and Dennis remodeled that Ohio home entirely on their own, with no outside help, and tended a garden so beautiful that neighbors regularly stopped to admire it. For 43 years, Shirley was a devoted and valued member of the Ridge Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Parma, Ohio — where it was often said her house was kept so clean you could eat off the floor, and where she cherished her friendship with Penny Juncker — before moving to Ormond Beach, Florida, in 2019.

Shirley had a kind, generous, larger-than-life warmth that reminded everyone of Mrs. Doubtfire. She was the person every child in the neighborhood ran to — whether they'd fallen and needed comfort, wanted someone to talk to, or were simply hoping for a taste of her baking. Without being asked, she once spent an evening washing and mending a friend of Cherie's torn, dirty pants during a childhood sleepover, just so the girl wouldn't have to feel embarrassed. She was famous for her chocolate icing and her baked goods, and even after she returned to full-time work once Cherie was in school, the PTA sought her out — her treats were always the first to sell out.

In her Parma neighborhood, and among her nieces and nephews, she was affectionately known as "Sergeant Shirley." She was a disciplinarian, without question — but she turned every moment, hard or easy, into a lesson worth learning. Years later, the very children she raised and mentored have credited her tough love and steady wisdom with helping them become strong, determined leaders and better parents, and with steering them clear of pitfalls life so often puts in the way. Her favorite sayings live on in the people she raised: "To thine own self be true, and you shall be false to no man," and, whenever things got tense, her calm and steadying "Let's not get excited."

The family is deeply grateful for the compassionate care Shirley received in her final months, and wishes to thank Beth Pincheon, Executive Director of Reflections Memory Care of Port Orange; Kathryn A. Erickson, NP; VITAS Healthcare nurses Denise B. and Aneika D.; and the comfort caregivers from Preferred Care at Home and Comfort Keepers.

Shirley will be remembered as a woman who gave up her own dreams so that others could have theirs — and who did it with humor, warmth, and an iron will disguised as a Martian's stare. She will be deeply missed by all who had the good fortune to know her.

A viewing will be held at Craig Flagler Palms Funeral Home, 511 Old Kings Road South, Flagler Beach, Florida 32136, on September 26, 2026, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Followed by a service at 1:00 pm, with entombment to follow at Flagler Memorial Gardens.