Shirley Sue Woodard Matthews

Shirley Sue Matthews passed away peacefully at 8:40 AM on Sunday, December 22, 2013 in Anacortes, WA at the age of 89.

Shirley was born in Lightfoot, Tennessee the daughter of Lucille Johnson and Clyde Woodard. She graduated from Ripley High School in 1942 and soon after moved to Memphis where she landed a coveted job with the Lyon Cotton Company on Front Street. She met Bill Matthews, a Navy pilot, in the fall of 1944 and was married on February 2, 1948 - Ground Hog Day. They promptly started a family and spent the next 21 years moving around the country with the Navy including an assignment to England. They moved to Oak Harbor, Washington in 1966 and bought the house they would live in for the next 48 years. In 1976 the family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for a year where Shirley worked on the Saudi Naval Expansion Program project as a medic. The family was then transferred to Athens, Greece for a year and a half, finally returning to their home in Oak Harbor in 1978.

Shirley loved traveling, boating, gardening, and keeping physically fit. Since 1980 many summer months were spent boating in the San Juan Islands or up the inside passage to Alaska where she enjoyed studying the history of the coastal native tribes. She kept very physically active throughout her life and always amazed others with her energy and youthfulness; especially in her later years.

But above all, nothing was more important to her than her family, for which she always put first before herself. She was the patient ear that would listen lovingly offering her own brand of optimism that everything will only get better tomorrow – and for that she will truly be missed the most.

Shirley is survived by her husband of 65 years Retired Cdr. William R. Matthews, daughter Margaret, sons Billy, John and Scott and her brother Jack Woodard, and sister Anne Deckard. She is also survived by 6 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

Memorial donations can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.