Shirley Mae (Jones) Thompson, loving Mom and Grandma, after a long struggle with illness following a broken back, went home to the Lord on October 18, 2014, peacefully at her home on Elmway, where she received loving care from Rick and his wife Linda for her last few years.

Shirley was born in the back of a car on Salmon Creek June 3, 1929, to Evan and Ruth Jones. Shirley grew up on her Dad’s ranch on Pine Creek, just east of Fish Lake. She worked the ranch during WWII when the boys were gone fighting. During that time she was teased by an older ranch hand, that she wasn’t strong enough to do the work. She told him she could take him out if she wanted. He laughed and told her he would buy her a milkshake if she could knock him down. She cold cocked him. She never got the milkshake, but she also never got teased about doing the work again!

Along the way she met this fine young fellow from Okanogan, Raymond Thompson at the Loup Loup Café in Okanogan where she was working as a waitress. They went to dances at the old Grange Hall on Pine Creek and had a fun time building memories there. Shirley and Ray were married on June 11, 1948, and began raising a family shortly thereafter. Richard (Rick), Linda, Shari, and Kenneth followed over the next few years. While Ray went to work at the Okanogan Dairy, Shirley helped, working at J.C. Penney for many years, retiring in 1991. During those years they lived most of the time on Elmway, where they not only raised their four kids, but helped raise five foster children as well.

Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, Evan and Ruth Jone, her brothers Tom, Lewis, and Jack, and sister Marj (Bevier), her loving husband Ray and her son Kenny. Surviving are her brothers Charles (Peewee) and Billy, her sisters Frankie (Fowler) and Margaret (Johnson), her son Rick, daughters Linda and Shari, 11 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.

Services will be held at the Okanogan Baptist Church on Sunday, November 16, 2014 at 2:00 PM. Memories are invited, and a potluck in the Church will follow.