Shirley Mason
Shirley A. Mason born August 27, 1953 in Salina, Kansas passed in peace on January 17, 2021 at the age of 67. Shirley is survived by her husband of 47 years, J. Cheney Mason. She is also survived by their children, Holly Gardner (Clint), Brookhaven, Mississippi, and Jennifer Zweigle (Darrel), Zachary, Louisiana; and grandchildren, Rachel Dawson (Stone), Nashville, Tennessee; Anna Louise Hardy (Johnson), Mobile, Alabama; Mason Gardner and James Gardner, Brookhaven, Mississippi; Melanie Zweigle and Haley Zweigle, Zachary, Louisiana; and Luke Zweigle, United States Navy. Shirley is further survived by her sister, Mary Jo Packard (Tom), Melbourne, Florida; and nieces, Christine Crowley and Kelly Pizzuto. She was predeceased by her parents, Evron and Josephine Hunziker.
Shirley’s father was in the United States Air Force and, as a result, Shirley was an “Air Force brat”, moving numerous places for her father’s military assignments. Shirley’s mother was born in Germany and was a war bride. Their traveling included Shirley going to elementary school in Bermuda followed by assignments in North Carolina, Indiana, and ultimately Okinawa, where she graduated from Kubasaki High School. Her father was then transferred to Orlando where she attended Valencia Junior College. To meet her internship requirement in business administration, she obtained a job working for her future husband as a legal secretary. They married in 1973.
For the next decade, Shirley worked as legal secretary and office manager for her husband’s law firm. She then determined to further her education and enrolled at the University of Central Florida. In short time, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with her degree in Computer Science and began pursuing her master’s degree. Even with the obligations related to her education, she continued to assist her husband’s law practice with extensive research, analysis, and managing all business affairs. Her mental capacity and analytical skills were extraordinary and notorious. It has been said that she could analyze the type off the page.
After several years of working together, Shirley and her husband were able to start extensive travel throughout the United States and Europe. They made a point to visit the well-known restaurants, museums, churches, and cathedrals in those cities in which they were visiting and almost always purchased a piece of art, usually a painting, as a souvenir. Among the favorite places in the United States were Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Manhattan. As a result of their European travels, Shirley and her husband gained lifetime friends, including Roland and Nancy Reinhart and their 3 children, the “German girls”, Julie, Alison, and Lindsay. Encouraged by the travel, Shirley and her husband began a hobby of learning foreign languages, including German, French, Italian, and Spanish, even some Japanese. Shirley went back to school to become more proficient in German and French.
Shirley enjoyed hobbies of elaborate baking, producing extraordinary birthday cakes for friends and their children. She further enjoyed all types of cooking and, in connection with her travels, acquired a collection of approximately 1,000 cookbooks, many in multiple languages. Shirley was also an avid orchid collector. Throughout their marriage, Shirley accompanied her husband on professional conferences for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and American Board of Criminal Lawyers. She became instrumental with the NACDL and FACDL in igniting interest in spouse activities in these organizations. In that connection, she made many friends which resulted in opportunities to introduce her husband. Her continued activities and connecting people were a substantial boost to her husband’s professional career resulting in the two of them becoming delegates to the United Nations in Vienna, Austria representing the NGO National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Her husband depended on her to do all the planning for the dozens of European travels; she did the map reading – navigating while he took directions and drove.
Frequently, after meeting a young woman working in a restaurant or boutique who was pregnant, Shirley would then bestow them with baby clothes and gifts, sometimes not even knowing the recipient’s full name. It gave her pleasure. Shirley worked with and contributed to dozens of charities, such as serving on the Board of the Central Florida Zoo, donating to the Boys & Girls Club, Planned Parenthood, American Cancer Society, Alzheimer’s research, Colonial Williamsburg, and others. She was also recognized as a special donor to the American Museum of Natural History.
In early December unexpectedly suffered multiple strokes. She fought tenaciously to survive for 42 days, 17 of which were in Hospice. She is and will be missed and loved by hundreds.