Then there was Shirley, or Shirl.

 Photo from the Past:

 

Shirl stopped by to see us on the way to sing with to an appointment to sing country. she could do about any style.

Now for today:

Shirley and I were sort of a second family to mom and dad. So we grew up together.  She taught me to play hopscotch and ride a bike, when dad pastored a country church. Our closest neighbors were farmers. They were black and in the 1940s we did not know that segregation was demanded down south. When we played with anyone it was those farm kids.  We had a ball.

Shirley fit in upper society, at times I would remind her she once played in a barn and jumped out of the loft into straw and manure. We kids racked a big pile after cleaning the stalls in the barn. It was great to jump in and very soft. LOL

Later at another church and in her teens, Shirley and her friends, Micki and Margreta, had a Trio and tried out for a shot on statewide TV.

Arther Smith Talent Scouts came to Valdese and the girls entered. When their time came, Shirley started out playing the Accordion and as they sang "Because Just Because" (by Frankie Yankovic), she switched to the piano without missing a note (quite a feat).

They won and were featured once with Arthor Smith and the Cracker Jacks on WBTV, of course the girls were the talk of the local High School for a while. 

Shirley married an ‘Aerospace Engineer,’ Jim Wrape. They had a good marriage and sang in the Charlotte Methodist choir.

After Jim passed, she leased our home and moved to Belmont while we traveled. She became active in the Belmont Historical Society.  The town of Belmont was founded on Cotton Mills and She became interested. I had picked cotton one summer as a kid, but Shirley never did. She shocked the folks at the Society by growing cotton and using the product, most still on the stalk, created some great decorations for her home and in the Historical House of the Society.

She always had a great musical talent and dreamed of being a lead singer in a band. In Belmont, She met and became a steady date of Smokey Coe, he was a record producer and had his own band. He was famous locally; he had been the first to Record and promote Randy Travis. She got the chance to fulfil her dream by singing with Smokey Coe’s band for a few years and loved it.

Her last was sad. She called us in Florida and told us we needed to come home and take care of her, "I'm losing my memory!" she said. We came home to find it was true.

A sad but sweet thing, Sherry and I were with both my sisters when they passed. Those were both tough times.

 Nite Shipslog

PS:

God has allowed us to meet some of the best folk on the planet. In person and here on the net.  Thank you all for being here… and being YOU, and reading an old man’s memories.