Public servant, educator, volunteer, sports fan, gardener

Shirley Lola Andrews died peacefully July 9 in her home in Claremont, surrounded by her children. She was 94. The only daughter of Joseph Gordon Saunders and Lola Collette Saunders of Taber, Alberta, Canada, she was predeceased by her older brother Gordon and younger brother Reg.

Shirley married Edgar Herbert Andrews in 1959 and they raised three children, David Morgan, Katherine Jo (Kate), Joseph Ritchie, in San Mateo, California. Edgar died in 2007.

Born on May 4, 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression, she was the first member of her family to attend college, earning a degree in English from Utah State University in 1951. She was an athlete in high school, an actress in college, and worked for the Girl Scouts of America for several years upon graduation. She became a public servant, an educator, an avid San Francisco Giants and 49ers fan, a dedicated church volunteer, and a joyful gardener.

In the 1970s she returned to school to earn an MA in psychology from CSU Hayward. She then became the director of personnel for the City of San Mateo while also teaching evening courses on women’s re-entry to the workforce at the College of San Mateo, “all while remaining a deeply involved, attentive, and loving parent,” her family shared.

“Everywhere Shirley went, she touched people’s lives for good,” her family added. “She was a woman of principle in all phases of her life, standing up for the right and refusing to countenance injustice.”

Shirley is survived by her three children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held in the Claremont building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 4 p.m. Saturday, July 27.