Clarice Temmer Shirley

“Mom” was her name to us. She dedicated her life to being a Mom.

Clarice Temmer Shirley passed away peacefully on February 17th, 2024. She’s in a much happier place with her loved ones that she missed so much and so often spoke about. Life was also very hard after Dad’s passing on October 15th, 2023. At 94, her health and mind had failed her and on February 17th, she simply said to her caretakers in the morning, I’m just tired and want to go back to bed.

On Saturday, March 23, 2024, we will have a graveside ceremony at Crown Hill Cemetery. At 1pm, we will meet at the Mortuary at 7777 West 29th, in Wheat Ridge CO. Family and close friends are invited to attend. Both Mom and Dad will be laid to rest.

Interestingly, the grave site has been part of our Mom’s family for generations, with the cemetery plot dating back to Mom’s great Grandfather and Grandmother, Henry Bischofberger who passed 10 years before Mom was born on April, 6th, 1929. At this site is a long lineage of our family of Coloradans including Mom’s parents, Merrill Temmer and Janice Bischofberger Temmer, and Aunt Lucille Bischofberger Barker, who was so close to Mom and our family for many years.

Mom’s ancestors date back generations where Mom and her brother Claude Temmer were 4th Generation Coloradans. The Bischofbergers settled in Colorado in dreams of striking it big as Gold and Silver miners. Mom was born in Denver in a house that her Dad, Meryl Temmer, built near the stockyards. The house still stands today.

She grew up loving to play the piano and accordion. When she was young, she would do chores and odd jobs to buy weekly sheet music to learn to play. With practice, she could play just about anything, but her passion was for music of the 1940’s before that noisy rock-and-roll. Mom, Dad and Aunt Lucille would often go listen and dance to the Big Band’s that would play at Elitch Gardens Trocadero Ballroom. Aunt Lucille worked there as the Executive Secretary to Mr. Elitch himself and would get us free passes. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=b_lqxTDPMMU

Mom went on to be the first of her family to graduate from College, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from what was Colorado State College in Greeley, CO, now the University of Northern Colorado, UNC in 1950; Major in Mathematics and Minors in Biological Science and English. This degree then accredited her, by the University of Colorado, to become a High School teacher.

She taught in several areas across Colorado but got her start in Flagler CO, where she witnessed a horrific air show tragedy which killed several of her students and haunted her for her entire life - https://www.denverpost.com/2011/09/16/coloradoair-show-crash-killed-20-in-1951/ and she only spoke of this tragedy on the 50 year commemoration.

She continued teaching after her Marriage to Dad, Eugene Roberts Shirley, Jr. and taught at Lakewood, Jr. High School. In her 1959-1960 second semester at Manning, Jr. High School, it reads: “Mrs. Shirley is a credit to the profession. She is a person of high ethical and moral standards and a good example for the young people of the school. She has a pleasant personality and a good sense of humor. She is intolerant of those who are negligent in their duty.”

Clarice and Gene were married on June 19,1958 and in January 1962, she became “Mom” with Debbie’s birth and then with Greg’s birth in April, 1965. She became a full time Mom on 41st and Dover in Wheat Ridge where we were raised.

Mom dedicated her life to us. Every day was a well prepared breakfast for the family at the breakfast table and we always had the best lunches among our friends. Every night was a traditional dinner and she made the best fried chicken. She would focus us on homework, but Debbie was much better at this than me. As we grew, we had many activities and Mom was a “Soccer Mom” before the term was ever coined. Debbie was very active in dance, gymnastics, softball and Job’s Daughters where Mom was an Eastern Star and Dad a Mason. I had several activities including Baseball, but my interests were much more focused on playing with friends, roaming the streets of Wheat Ridge, playing down by the creek and often getting into trouble. How Mom put up with me is still a mystery to me?? I started working when I was 13 as a towel boy at Everitt Jr. High where mom got me the job and would pick me up in the evenings. When I started working at Mr. Steak, she always made an early dinner around 4pm and take drive me to work until I could drive.

I also had severe asthma, allergies and eczema. This often resulted in many nights rocking me in the living room chair or spending hours with treatments that, as I look back at what we did, was actually the opposite of what should have been done. For example, breathing through a paper bag to relieve asthma is the exact opposite of what should be done. Or, to treat severe eczema, use a heat lamp and then wrap me in cellophane for the night. Medieval!! But Mom and Dad worked through it all for years and I never recall their complaining or ever getting angry. Pretty special to have parents like that which as kids, we took for granted.

Throughout our school years, Mom worked as an assistant teacher at Willmore Davis, Everett Jr. High and Wheat Ridge High, often working with remedial students. This enabled her to work and have extra spending money while keeping the hours that she needed to be “Mom”. Family friends, and often single moms, would drop their kids off before school at our house and Mom we would pack us into the green with wooden paneled, Town and Country station wagon and go to school. Everyday, back home where she would make snacks and get all the kids working on their homework.

I could go on and on about all the great times I had growing up and it was a very special childhood all the way through my college years. Mom was there for us.

After Debbie and I got on our own, Mom and Dad traveled world. They sometimes would spend 4-6 weeks on a cruise that my dad would find very good deals and say “we can’t afford to stay at home”. Mom also had a passion for gambling and when they opened Central City, mom was “Home” in the mining town of her ancestors. They spent 3-4 days a week gambling on nickel poker machines where they won about $20K a year and got all the perks as Diamond Members. Mom loved Central City and all the new friends she met.

They lived in the home were were raised in since 1972 until their health failed them in their late 80’s and they could no longer care for themselves their own. One of the hardest times in Mom’s life was leaving her beloved Colorado and coming to TX on August 7, 2020 to be closer to Debbie in Frisco. This move and losing their independence was very difficult for both Mom and Dad. They were both in the Hospital in Wheat Ridge and could not be discharged to go home. They never got to say goodby to their home. We often discussed their disappointment, but it was a necessary move and the final chapter of their lives. It was especially hard for Mom with her being hard of hearing and dementia, which impacted her speech. Once Dad passed, her quality of life was sad for everyone, but she made the most of it completing on hundred’s of puzzles and still getting her hair done every week.

Mom passed 2 weeks before Nicole and David’s Wedding and I like to think that this was her plan of being able to attend, for it broke her heart that she was not physically able to travel. She met David a few times and said “I really like him a lot”.

Mom lived a very full life and leaves behind her legacy of 2 children who have raised 4 terrific grandchildren, Tyler and Nicole Shirley and Carson and Cole Turner. They continue her legacy of being “a person of high ethical and moral standards with a pleasant personality and a good sense of humor.”

Rest in peace and we’ll see you in the mountains of heaven. Love and thank you, Greg and Debbie