Mary Rose (Adkins) Shigley

Mary Rose Adkins Shigley❤

Mary Rose Adkins was born on August 1, 1931, in Artesia, New Mexico, to Edward and Lula Adkins.  (Well, her birth certificate indicates July 31, but that’s just one of many stories about this anything-but-ordinary woman…)  She died on November 18, 2019, in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 88.  A gathering will assemble on November 22, 2:30 p.m., at Dunes Memorial Chapel in Reedsport, Oregon, and proceed to Reedsport Masonic Cemetery for a graveside service.  A life tribute is being planned for December 6 in Portland.

Mary grew up in Pixley, California, and in 1947 serendipitously met William R. Shigley, from Wisconsin.  Bill proposed to her on their second date, and they were married a month later.  There was a 24-year difference in their ages.  They lived a unique life - never far apart, loving God, owning small businesses (a favorite was in the 1950s with the Little Shepherd Grill in Springfield, Missouri), fishing, and taking perfect care of each other.  They had their first and only child in 1967 after 20-years of marriage; a daughter, Mary Kristine Shigley.  Four years later they retired to Reedsport, Oregon, where they raised Kris.

How to describe Mary?  Kind, generous, fun, resilient, funny, genuine.  What she loved?  Family, animals, gardenias, blue, chocolate pie, Pepsi!

Mary was preceded in death by her parents, sister Dorothy Daup, brothers Norman, Leroy, and Leon Adkins, and half-brother Everett Lowe.  Her husband Bill died in 1993, who she will be buried next to.  Eventually, their daughter Kris will be buried alongside them.

Those blessed to have had Mary in their lives who remain include her niece and nephew, Billie and John Bespiaty, as well as many other nieces and nephews on both sides of the family, staff and residents at Marquis Piedmont - including her roommate Betty (aka Isy), grand-cats Cassie and Zach, son-in-law Will Stevens - who played an enormous role in her care for the past several years, and Kris, her daughter who cannot imagine this world without her mama, but promises to redistribute kindness, as Mary did.

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