Shirley Jean Page

Shirley Jean (Smitter) Page was born August 16, 1934 in Grand Rapids to Nicholas and Effie (Afke nee Klooster) Smitter. She was their tenth child, born 11 years after her next oldest sibling. Her father died when she was three years old and her elder sisters, Anna and Edna, became instrumental in nurturing Shirley. She graduated in spring 1952 from South High School in Grand Rapids. That following November Shirley was attending the Davenport Business College in Grand Rapids when her sorority sponsored a bus trip to a dance at the Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek. At the dance she met Edward Leroy Page, a Korean War veteran who was recuperating from serious combat wounds. It was the beginning of a life-long love together. Married on December 5, 1953 in a civil ceremony in Grand Rapids, they promptly set up home in Detroit. Three years later they moved to Wyoming where they bought the house that would remain their home together until Ed’s passing in 2000.

 Shirley was a life-long member of the William Alden Smith Chapter of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary, served as adjutant and for the past 20 years was treasurer for the Chapter’s bingo fund-raising efforts. She attended many State and National meetings, placed flags on Veterans’ graves on Memorial Day, helped with picnics and the annual Santa Claus visits. The Chapter honored her for years of service. When not at  “the hall” supporting DAV activities, she enjoyed crocheting and knitting, baking, reading trashy romance novels, playing euchre and cribbage, and caring for Heidi the dachshund.

Shirley was preceded in death by her beloved husband Ed and their eldest child, Nancy Jean Windsor. She is survived by three children: Karen Lynn Knapp, Deborah Sue (Kasten) Dumroese, and Edward Leroy Jr. (Kristina Ulrich) Page;  five grandchildren: Justin Richard (Ariel Eno) Knapp, Sarah Christine (Michael David) Dahlstrom, Caitlyn Marie (Chad Allen) Dykehouse, Aaron Wyatt Knapp, and Niklaas Kasten Dumroese; and five great-grandchildren.

Funeral services for Shirley will be held on Saturday, July 28, 2018 at 11:00 am at Matthysse Kuiper DeGraaf Funeral Home, 4031 Clyde Park SW, Wyoming with Pastor Dennis Gilbert officiating. Interment Rest Lawn Memorial Park. Relatives and friends may meet the family at the funeral home on Saturday from 10-11 am prior to the service.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations in her memory to the Faith Hospice (faithhospicecare.org) or The Humane Society of the United States.