Shirley Hastings

Shirley was a wife and mother to three ornery boys, she was a wonderful sister and aunt, a loyal friend and confidante.

Her growing up years were spent in Ft Gibson where she attended school. Her future husband Curt would later tell a story about overhearing a group of young boys who were planning to swipe a bicycle. Curt warned the boys that they better not mess with that bike, it belonged to Shirley’s little sister. “You don’t want to mess with Shirley, she’s feisty!” Feisty became Curt’s nickname for Shirley and she carried that feisty spirit throughout her life.

Shirley married Curtis A Hastings Jr, in 1946, together they raised three sons and worked hard to give their family a good life. She was a Cub Scout den mother, supported her sons’ Little League baseball teams, knew how to stretch a food dollar to feed her growing sons, and could paint and wallpaper and decorate any kind of house to make it a home.

Shirley took great pride in her cosmetology career--in 1964 she enrolled at Charles School of Hair Design in Shawnee, OK where she completed her cosmetology and advanced cosmetology education and found her true calling. She opened her home salon in 1968, and many of her clients also became close friends. Her clients knew they could share any problems with her and it would go no futher than those salon walls. Shirley eventually tested and received her Master Instructor license.

From 1976 to 1980 she worked for the Oklahoma State Department of Labor, first as Field Staff Representative and eventually as Director of the Women’s Offenders Resource Center. She helped many women offenders make the difficult transition from prison to a normal life, she would give a client the last few dollars in her pocket or clothes from her own closet, to help them get started. Shirley liked to tell about the visit she and some colleagues made to a women’s minimum security facility, where a resident recognized and called out to her “Are you Jimmy Hastings mother? “ When Shirley replied, “Why, yes I am,” the lady said “I remember you, you taught my Sunday school class!!”

Shirley took her oath of office as the Executive Secretary for the Oklahoma State Board of Cosmetology on January 11, 1980, where she was known for her encouragement and compassion towards licensees and employees and worked tirelessly to elevate the status of the profession. She made many friends in the Cosmetology profession in Oklahoma and across the nation. She retired as the Executive Director on January 31, 1996.

After her retirement, Shirley returned to Ft Gibson and was a loving caregiver to her mother during the last few years of her mother’s life. Being a full time caregiver to an eldery parent is not easy, but she enjoyed the time she had with her mother. She was always willing to help her family, saying “That’s what I’ve got now, honey, is time.”

Shirley was a talented artist and loved painting, flower arranging, and arts and crafts. She also enjoyed tending her roses and watching her hummingbirds. She loved to travel, she took several geneology trips with her brother Clayton and wife Sara Jo. She loved visiting her sister Ruth Moss and relatives in California, her neices and nephews kept her busy with side trips to Disneyland, Yosemite, San Franciso and Carmel. She and her sister Mary Elizabeth took a very special trip to San Antonio and years later they still laughed about their experience with the trolley system.

Predeceased by her former husband and father of her three sons, Curtis Hastings; son Phil, brothers Clayton Smith and Bill Smith, infant brother Thomas Darius, sister Essie May Taylor; she is survived by sons Jim Hastings and wife Janelle, Don and wife Sherry and their children, Zac and Erin, sisters Ruth Moss of Stockton CA and Mary Taylor of Ft Gibson OK, best friend and neighbor Barbara Hedrick of Oklahoma City and many nephews and nieces including special neices Sheri Glasgow and Paula Jean Morgan.

Visitation will be held Wednesday, October 24, 2012 from 3-8 pm at Guardian West Funeral Home. A graveside service will be held at Fairview Cemetery in Shawnee at 2 pm Thursday, October 25, 2012.

Go rest high on that mountain, Vince Gill

I’ll fly away

Lord’s Prayer

23 Psalm