Shirley Ann Bird

Shirley Ann Bird passed away peacefully on December 29, 2025, in Kailua, Hawaiʻi, at the age of 90. Her passing was the close of a long and faithful life. On the evening before she left us, Shirley was surrounded by many of her beloved ʻohana, who comforted her with songs and music, offering their love, respect, and aloha to a cherished matriarch. In those final moments, they honored a woman who had spent her life teaching them, by word and by example, of her deep and abiding love for her Savior, Jesus Christ.

Shirley was born on November 1, 1935, in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, to Lillian Castro Downie and William Ferreira Jr. She was the second of three children. In her youth, Shirley worked on the family farm while attending schools in Honolulu, eventually graduating from Farrington High School in 1953.

Over the course of her nine decades, Shirley witnessed, and remembered vividly, the sweeping changes that transformed her beloved island home. She recalled the blackouts of World War II and cooking spam from soldiers’ K-rations, danced hula in one of the earliest Waikiki luau shows during the rise of tourism, watched the decline of the great plantations, and celebrated Hawaiʻi’s admission as the 50th state.

Shirley worked at the old Waioli Tea Room and spent seventeen years teaching in public schools, which she loved. However, her greatest devotion was to her family and her faith. She served in numerous callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, especially loving her years teaching children in the Kaneohe Wards, where her bright spirit and firm testimony touched many lives.

Shirley is survived by her husband of 49 years, Robert Bird, to whom she was sealed in the Laie Temple in 1978. She is also survived by her sister, Lillian Bradley, and her brother, Thomas Ferreira; her son, Wayne Michael Hiwa Kimokeo (Norma); and her twin daughters, Tamara Ann Puanani (Tad Henderson) and Tanya Jean Leilani (Dave Furtado). She leaves behind twelve grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren, each of whom carries forward a piece of her legacy.

She was preceded in death by her brothers, Robert Ferreira and William Ferreira (“Billy Boy”), and her step-sister, Thelma.

Shirley loved her family deeply and lived with an unwavering faith in the promise that families are eternal. She believed firmly that this farewell is only temporary and that one day we will all be gathered together again.