BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
(by Shirley's daughter Gale, Find a Grave Member 47724849)
Shirley was born at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, on March 3, 1933 (3-3-33, as she liked to say). Amazingly, her husband (my father Paul) was born on the same day and year.
Shirley was later baptized at the age of nine, on January 31, 1943, at the Bethel Baptist Church by Pastor Harold E. Doty, after the family had moved to Santa Paula, California.
Mom was named after Shirley Temple and her mother Amelia would sometimes curl her hair in ringlets. Throughout her life, Mom loved watching Shirley Temple movies. Mom found her namesake inspiring (as well as adorable), and shared her optimism, cheerfulness, mischievousness, sense of fun, loyalty, practicality, initiative, resourcefulness and dogged determination.
Shirley's father Einer was born in Elverum, Norway in 1887. When he was three months old, his mother Oline brought him to America and married Lars Olaf Tullberg in Shawano County, Wisconsin. Einer's stepfather Mr. Tullberg was born in Sweden. Einer began his working life after completing the eighth grade. He changed the spelling of his name to "Tulberg" when he was an adult and eventually moved to Bismarck.
Shirley's mother Amelia was German but born near Odessa. Amelia and her parents came to America in 1909, when Amelia was an infant. and they eventually settled on a homestead near Washburn, N.D. Amelia left school after the seventh grade and moved in with her cousin Bertha Steinert in Bismarck. Both girls worked in the Capitol Steam Laundry and Amelia continued to work there at times after her children were born. Amellia had a strong German accent which we found charming - stronger than Lawrence Welk's (at whose clubs in Bismarck and Los Angeles she loved to dance).
Einer and Amelia met and married on Christmas Day, 1929. Their son Ellsworth Eugene was born in 1930, and daughter Shirley (Mom) was born in 1933. They lived at 1017 Fourth Street in Bismarck, just a few blocks from the State Capitol . Einer was a builder and carpenter and among other jobs, he worked on the new, Art Deco style State Capitol building, which replaced the older one that had burned down. When Shirley was five weeks old, Einer fell 34 feet from the scaffolding of the Capitol and broke his left thigh bone and several bones in his left foot. While he was recuperating, the family had virtually no income and moved into the basement of Einer's half-brother Carl John Tullberg and wife Ella, who lived next door at 1021 Fourth Street. Shirley played often in their back yard and retained very fond memories of "Uncle Carl".
In Bismarck, Shirley attended the beautiful and historic Will Moore Elementary School, a three minute walk from her home. She was a good student, earning all Gs and Es (Good and Excellent).
In 1942, during Shirley's fourth grade year, the family moved to Santa Paula, California. They rented a one-bedroom duplex with a Murphy bed in the living room, at 228 South Fourth Street. Einer joined his step-nephews Arthur Gustav and Carl Henry Tullberg who worked as carpenters in the naval base at Port Hueneme. Ellsworth and Shirley attended Isbell Grammar School, which was and is right across the street from where they lived.
In grammar school, Shirley was a member of the Camp Fire Girls (Cheskchamay troop) from 1944 to 1947. She joined Job's Daughters shortly before her graduation from eighth grade on June 12, 1947 . She took tap dancing lessons and performed at a Job's Daughters dinner honoring parents, with her friends Joella Pitts and Sharon Winn.
Shirley continued with Job's Daughters at Santa Paula High School, until December 1950 (halfway through her senior year). She excelled in high school and was a member of the California Scholastic Federation (CSF).
Mom laughingly told me about two jobs she had during high school which didn't last very long. The first job lasted one day. During her freshman year (1947-1948) she got a job sweeping up hair at a beauty shop on Main Street, at about 8th. Her Algebra teacher (who must have been Miss Bailard) came into the shop and Mom, embarrassed, quit after one day.
The second job lasted a bit longer. In summer 1948, between her freshman and sophomore years, she got an assembly line job at a citrus packing house up the street from where she lived (Santa Paula Citrus Association, 500 Santa Barbara Street). She and other girls picked out moldy lemons as they went by on the belt. Mom had to quit because she discovered that she was allergic to the mold. Her application for a Social Security card shows that she started working there on June 17, 1948. Fortunately, she was there long enough to be in a professionally taken (large format) photograph, perhaps intended for the newspaper. The photo is posted on this memorial.
Like many high school teens in Santa Paula, Shirley worked summers at Burpee's flower and vegetable fields. In January 1947, Burpee, a Philadelphia company, announced that it would make Santa Paula its west coast headquarters, and leased 85 acres on West Telegraph Road. Their office was a Quonset building located off Briggs Road. Shirley and her step-cousin Natalia Tullberg hand-pollinated tomato flowers to assist in the production of Burpee's hybrid tomatoes. Burpee recruited high school girls for these jobs. Mom started working for Burpee's in her freshman year and continued for a few summers afterward, until at least the summer between her junior and senior year (on July 14, 1950, the Santa Paula Chronicle reported that she and Natalia, along with several of their friends - Barbara and Mary Nunn, Geneva Moore, and Betty Garrett - had been recruited by Burpee's for the summer). Natalia and Barbara were photographed in a field of Burpee's flowers for one of their seed catalogs.
Shirley's mother Amelia, and Amelia's step-relative Ethel Tullberg also worked for Burpee's. They were recruited by ads for female field supervisors to supervise high school girls.
Burpee's recruited high school boys for the job of picking bean beetles off the produce.
Shirley's future husband (my father Paul) and his friends worked in the fields picking beetles off the tomatoes, and Shirley remembered the girls slinging some of Burpee's prize tomatoes at the boys, who had nothing to throw back.
Shirley and Paul had a lengthy friendship before they began dating in their junior year. They graduated in 1951 and attended Ventura College for a year or so. Paul also worked on the Shedenhelm citrus ranch, and then enlisted in the Navy. After boot camp in San Diego, he was stationed first in Oahu, then in Kodiak Alaska. During this time, Shirley worked as a "floater" for Sears in Ventura, in the Classified section of the Ventura Star Press, and then at the Disbursing Office at Port Hueneme where her father had worked as a carpenter.
Meanwhile, Paul was granted a month's furlough from March 22 to April 22, 1953. The Santa Paula Chronicle reported that he returned home on March 23, 1954. They were married on Sunday, April 28, 1954 at Shirley's family church, the First Baptist Church of Santa Paula (217 N. 10th) by the Rev. Joseph W. Bruner. Their witnesses were Shirley's attendants Phyllis Huckaby (maid of honor) and Geneva Moore (bridesmaid), and Paul's ushers Robert Welsey "Bob" Sponseller and Roy "Jack" Gatz. Shirley's brother Ellsworth had married Carolyn Richards two years previously, and Carolyn's youngest sister Theresa served as flower girl. Shirley's "borrowed" article was Carolyn's veil. Shirley's pale pink wedding dress was made by Cahill of Beverly Hills, and her wedding photo for the paper was taken by Hal Boucher at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel.
They honeymooned for three weeks in Lake Tahoe, the Redwoods, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boulder Dam, the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park.
On Monday, April 24, 1954, Paul flew to his new assignment with the Naval Air Station at Barber's Point, Oahu. On Saturday, May 1, Shirley's parents drove her to Los Angeles International Airport where she flew on a United Airlines flight to join him. They lived off base and initially chose a beautifully decorated one-room studio behind a house at 405 Royal Hawaiian Avenue in Honolulu, a few blocks from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It was charming, but expensive on a seaman's pay, and a few months later, expecting their first child (me), they moved to a newly-constructed one bedroom home at 85-919 Mill Road in Waianae.
I was born at Tripler Army Hospital in January 1955, and on June 7, 1955, the three of us took the Gen. Edwin Patrick ship back to California. My father Paul was now assigned to the Naval Air Station at North Island (Coronado), San Diego. We lived at 1211 Elm in Palm City (now Imperial Beach). Paul took the ferry to North Island to work. My brother Paul Jr. was born in 1956 at the Navy Hospital on Coronado Island. Mom worked as a Clerk Typist for the Navy at North Island, handling payroll and other duties in the Disbursing Office. Her two Navy civilian jobs, including the one at Port Hueneme just before she was married, totaled two years and three months.
In 1957, Paul and Shirley moved back to Santa Paula. They lived initially in one of the apartments at 536 Acacia from January to June 1957, then moved to 500-1/2 Acacia, a little house behind 500 Acacia which was owned by Leonard and Mayme Dietrich. Shirley worked in the Classified section of the Santa Paula Chronicle (116 N. 10th St.), and Paul attended college while Mayme babysat the children.
In October 1958, they moved to Paul's mother's prior home at 939 West Telegraph. Paul's mother Olive had re-married that year and she and her husband Owen bought a house at 937 Greenwood. Olive had many connections in town and got Shirley a job working for Allen Crosby Hardison of Hardison Ranch Company, at 124 East Main Street, Santa Paula. Shirley worked as Mr. Hardison's secretary and bookkeeper for two and a half years, from 1957 to 1959. She said later that this was her favorite job ever. She left in 1959 during her pregnancy with her third child (daughter Susan).
Meanwhile, Paul had begun to work for the Department of Employment in Ventura and in December 1960, they moved to the Sacramento area in furtherance of Paul's career with the State of California. Shirley worked for Aerojet for four months in 1961 but left while expecting their fourth child (Kirby, born in 1962).
In 1967, the family moved to the new planned development El Dorado Hills. Paul and Shirley worked hard to create a beautiful, private and relaxing yard. Their fifth and last child, Ernie, was born in 1967.
Shirley stayed home for ten years (1962 to 1972) to raise the children. In January 1973, she went to work for the state Franchise Tax Board for three months, but resigned to stay at home. Two years later, she returned to the Franchise Tax Board for six months during tax season (December 1975 to June 1976), and then worked for the State Controller's Office from September to December 1976. In January 1977 she returned to the Franchise Tax Board working mostly five-six months per year during tax season, until she retired in 1994.
Paul, Shirley and the family spent vacations at the cabin built by Olive's husband Owen near Lake Crowley in the Eastern Sierra, or in Santa Paula for visits with Paul and Shirley's parents and days spent at the Rincon beach. After Paul retired in 1986, Paul and Shirley enjoyed many trips to the cabin and short trips to Lake Tahoe.
Paul passed away in 1998. Shirley retired from the Franchise Tax Board in 1994 and her days were filled with doing things with, and for, her family and grandchildren. She loved spending time with her family and was a lot of fun to be with.
There are so many things I would like to say about her - her passing left a great void in our lives. Please click the "Photos" tab to see more photos from her life.
(by Shirley's daughter Gale, Find a Grave Member 47724849)
Shirley was born at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, on March 3, 1933 (3-3-33, as she liked to say). Amazingly, her husband (my father Paul) was born on the same day and year.
Shirley was later baptized at the age of nine, on January 31, 1943, at the Bethel Baptist Church by Pastor Harold E. Doty, after the family had moved to Santa Paula, California.
Mom was named after Shirley Temple and her mother Amelia would sometimes curl her hair in ringlets. Throughout her life, Mom loved watching Shirley Temple movies. Mom found her namesake inspiring (as well as adorable), and shared her optimism, cheerfulness, mischievousness, sense of fun, loyalty, practicality, initiative, resourcefulness and dogged determination.
Shirley's father Einer was born in Elverum, Norway in 1887. When he was three months old, his mother Oline brought him to America and married Lars Olaf Tullberg in Shawano County, Wisconsin. Einer's stepfather Mr. Tullberg was born in Sweden. Einer began his working life after completing the eighth grade. He changed the spelling of his name to "Tulberg" when he was an adult and eventually moved to Bismarck.
Shirley's mother Amelia was German but born near Odessa. Amelia and her parents came to America in 1909, when Amelia was an infant. and they eventually settled on a homestead near Washburn, N.D. Amelia left school after the seventh grade and moved in with her cousin Bertha Steinert in Bismarck. Both girls worked in the Capitol Steam Laundry and Amelia continued to work there at times after her children were born. Amellia had a strong German accent which we found charming - stronger than Lawrence Welk's (at whose clubs in Bismarck and Los Angeles she loved to dance).
Einer and Amelia met and married on Christmas Day, 1929. Their son Ellsworth Eugene was born in 1930, and daughter Shirley (Mom) was born in 1933. They lived at 1017 Fourth Street in Bismarck, just a few blocks from the State Capitol . Einer was a builder and carpenter and among other jobs, he worked on the new, Art Deco style State Capitol building, which replaced the older one that had burned down. When Shirley was five weeks old, Einer fell 34 feet from the scaffolding of the Capitol and broke his left thigh bone and several bones in his left foot. While he was recuperating, the family had virtually no income and moved into the basement of Einer's half-brother Carl John Tullberg and wife Ella, who lived next door at 1021 Fourth Street. Shirley played often in their back yard and retained very fond memories of "Uncle Carl".
In Bismarck, Shirley attended the beautiful and historic Will Moore Elementary School, a three minute walk from her home. She was a good student, earning all Gs and Es (Good and Excellent).
In 1942, during Shirley's fourth grade year, the family moved to Santa Paula, California. They rented a one-bedroom duplex with a Murphy bed in the living room, at 228 South Fourth Street. Einer joined his step-nephews Arthur Gustav and Carl Henry Tullberg who worked as carpenters in the naval base at Port Hueneme. Ellsworth and Shirley attended Isbell Grammar School, which was and is right across the street from where they lived.
In grammar school, Shirley was a member of the Camp Fire Girls (Cheskchamay troop) from 1944 to 1947. She joined Job's Daughters shortly before her graduation from eighth grade on June 12, 1947 . She took tap dancing lessons and performed at a Job's Daughters dinner honoring parents, with her friends Joella Pitts and Sharon Winn.
Shirley continued with Job's Daughters at Santa Paula High School, until December 1950 (halfway through her senior year). She excelled in high school and was a member of the California Scholastic Federation (CSF).
Mom laughingly told me about two jobs she had during high school which didn't last very long. The first job lasted one day. During her freshman year (1947-1948) she got a job sweeping up hair at a beauty shop on Main Street, at about 8th. Her Algebra teacher (who must have been Miss Bailard) came into the shop and Mom, embarrassed, quit after one day.
The second job lasted a bit longer. In summer 1948, between her freshman and sophomore years, she got an assembly line job at a citrus packing house up the street from where she lived (Santa Paula Citrus Association, 500 Santa Barbara Street). She and other girls picked out moldy lemons as they went by on the belt. Mom had to quit because she discovered that she was allergic to the mold. Her application for a Social Security card shows that she started working there on June 17, 1948. Fortunately, she was there long enough to be in a professionally taken (large format) photograph, perhaps intended for the newspaper. The photo is posted on this memorial.
Like many high school teens in Santa Paula, Shirley worked summers at Burpee's flower and vegetable fields. In January 1947, Burpee, a Philadelphia company, announced that it would make Santa Paula its west coast headquarters, and leased 85 acres on West Telegraph Road. Their office was a Quonset building located off Briggs Road. Shirley and her step-cousin Natalia Tullberg hand-pollinated tomato flowers to assist in the production of Burpee's hybrid tomatoes. Burpee recruited high school girls for these jobs. Mom started working for Burpee's in her freshman year and continued for a few summers afterward, until at least the summer between her junior and senior year (on July 14, 1950, the Santa Paula Chronicle reported that she and Natalia, along with several of their friends - Barbara and Mary Nunn, Geneva Moore, and Betty Garrett - had been recruited by Burpee's for the summer). Natalia and Barbara were photographed in a field of Burpee's flowers for one of their seed catalogs.
Shirley's mother Amelia, and Amelia's step-relative Ethel Tullberg also worked for Burpee's. They were recruited by ads for female field supervisors to supervise high school girls.
Burpee's recruited high school boys for the job of picking bean beetles off the produce.
Shirley's future husband (my father Paul) and his friends worked in the fields picking beetles off the tomatoes, and Shirley remembered the girls slinging some of Burpee's prize tomatoes at the boys, who had nothing to throw back.
Shirley and Paul had a lengthy friendship before they began dating in their junior year. They graduated in 1951 and attended Ventura College for a year or so. Paul also worked on the Shedenhelm citrus ranch, and then enlisted in the Navy. After boot camp in San Diego, he was stationed first in Oahu, then in Kodiak Alaska. During this time, Shirley worked as a "floater" for Sears in Ventura, in the Classified section of the Ventura Star Press, and then at the Disbursing Office at Port Hueneme where her father had worked as a carpenter.
Meanwhile, Paul was granted a month's furlough from March 22 to April 22, 1953. The Santa Paula Chronicle reported that he returned home on March 23, 1954. They were married on Sunday, April 28, 1954 at Shirley's family church, the First Baptist Church of Santa Paula (217 N. 10th) by the Rev. Joseph W. Bruner. Their witnesses were Shirley's attendants Phyllis Huckaby (maid of honor) and Geneva Moore (bridesmaid), and Paul's ushers Robert Welsey "Bob" Sponseller and Roy "Jack" Gatz. Shirley's brother Ellsworth had married Carolyn Richards two years previously, and Carolyn's youngest sister Theresa served as flower girl. Shirley's "borrowed" article was Carolyn's veil. Shirley's pale pink wedding dress was made by Cahill of Beverly Hills, and her wedding photo for the paper was taken by Hal Boucher at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel.
They honeymooned for three weeks in Lake Tahoe, the Redwoods, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boulder Dam, the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park.
On Monday, April 24, 1954, Paul flew to his new assignment with the Naval Air Station at Barber's Point, Oahu. On Saturday, May 1, Shirley's parents drove her to Los Angeles International Airport where she flew on a United Airlines flight to join him. They lived off base and initially chose a beautifully decorated one-room studio behind a house at 405 Royal Hawaiian Avenue in Honolulu, a few blocks from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It was charming, but expensive on a seaman's pay, and a few months later, expecting their first child (me), they moved to a newly-constructed one bedroom home at 85-919 Mill Road in Waianae.
I was born at Tripler Army Hospital in January 1955, and on June 7, 1955, the three of us took the Gen. Edwin Patrick ship back to California. My father Paul was now assigned to the Naval Air Station at North Island (Coronado), San Diego. We lived at 1211 Elm in Palm City (now Imperial Beach). Paul took the ferry to North Island to work. My brother Paul Jr. was born in 1956 at the Navy Hospital on Coronado Island. Mom worked as a Clerk Typist for the Navy at North Island, handling payroll and other duties in the Disbursing Office. Her two Navy civilian jobs, including the one at Port Hueneme just before she was married, totaled two years and three months.
In 1957, Paul and Shirley moved back to Santa Paula. They lived initially in one of the apartments at 536 Acacia from January to June 1957, then moved to 500-1/2 Acacia, a little house behind 500 Acacia which was owned by Leonard and Mayme Dietrich. Shirley worked in the Classified section of the Santa Paula Chronicle (116 N. 10th St.), and Paul attended college while Mayme babysat the children.
In October 1958, they moved to Paul's mother's prior home at 939 West Telegraph. Paul's mother Olive had re-married that year and she and her husband Owen bought a house at 937 Greenwood. Olive had many connections in town and got Shirley a job working for Allen Crosby Hardison of Hardison Ranch Company, at 124 East Main Street, Santa Paula. Shirley worked as Mr. Hardison's secretary and bookkeeper for two and a half years, from 1957 to 1959. She said later that this was her favorite job ever. She left in 1959 during her pregnancy with her third child (daughter Susan).
Meanwhile, Paul had begun to work for the Department of Employment in Ventura and in December 1960, they moved to the Sacramento area in furtherance of Paul's career with the State of California. Shirley worked for Aerojet for four months in 1961 but left while expecting their fourth child (Kirby, born in 1962).
In 1967, the family moved to the new planned development El Dorado Hills. Paul and Shirley worked hard to create a beautiful, private and relaxing yard. Their fifth and last child, Ernie, was born in 1967.
Shirley stayed home for ten years (1962 to 1972) to raise the children. In January 1973, she went to work for the state Franchise Tax Board for three months, but resigned to stay at home. Two years later, she returned to the Franchise Tax Board for six months during tax season (December 1975 to June 1976), and then worked for the State Controller's Office from September to December 1976. In January 1977 she returned to the Franchise Tax Board working mostly five-six months per year during tax season, until she retired in 1994.
Paul, Shirley and the family spent vacations at the cabin built by Olive's husband Owen near Lake Crowley in the Eastern Sierra, or in Santa Paula for visits with Paul and Shirley's parents and days spent at the Rincon beach. After Paul retired in 1986, Paul and Shirley enjoyed many trips to the cabin and short trips to Lake Tahoe.
Paul passed away in 1998. Shirley retired from the Franchise Tax Board in 1994 and her days were filled with doing things with, and for, her family and grandchildren. She loved spending time with her family and was a lot of fun to be with.
There are so many things I would like to say about her - her passing left a great void in our lives. Please click the "Photos" tab to see more photos from her life.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
(by Shirley's daughter Gale, Find a Grave Member 47724849)
Shirley was born at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, on March 3, 1933 (3-3-33, as she liked to say). Amazingly, her husband (my father Paul) was born on the same day and year.
Shirley was later baptized at the age of nine, on January 31, 1943, at the Bethel Baptist Church by Pastor Harold E. Doty, after the family had moved to Santa Paula, California.
Mom was named after Shirley Temple and her mother Amelia would sometimes curl her hair in ringlets. Throughout her life, Mom loved watching Shirley Temple movies. Mom found her namesake inspiring (as well as adorable), and shared her optimism, cheerfulness, mischievousness, sense of fun, loyalty, practicality, initiative, resourcefulness and dogged determination.
Shirley's father Einer was born in Elverum, Norway in 1887. When he was three months old, his mother Oline brought him to America and married Lars Olaf Tullberg in Shawano County, Wisconsin. Einer's stepfather Mr. Tullberg was born in Sweden. Einer began his working life after completing the eighth grade. He changed the spelling of his name to "Tulberg" when he was an adult and eventually moved to Bismarck.
Shirley's mother Amelia was German but born near Odessa. Amelia and her parents came to America in 1909, when Amelia was an infant. and they eventually settled on a homestead near Washburn, N.D. Amelia left school after the seventh grade and moved in with her cousin Bertha Steinert in Bismarck. Both girls worked in the Capitol Steam Laundry and Amelia continued to work there at times after her children were born. Amellia had a strong German accent which we found charming - stronger than Lawrence Welk's (at whose clubs in Bismarck and Los Angeles she loved to dance).
Einer and Amelia met and married on Christmas Day, 1929. Their son Ellsworth Eugene was born in 1930, and daughter Shirley (Mom) was born in 1933. They lived at 1017 Fourth Street in Bismarck, just a few blocks from the State Capitol . Einer was a builder and carpenter and among other jobs, he worked on the new, Art Deco style State Capitol building, which replaced the older one that had burned down. When Shirley was five weeks old, Einer fell 34 feet from the scaffolding of the Capitol and broke his left thigh bone and several bones in his left foot. While he was recuperating, the family had virtually no income and moved into the basement of Einer's half-brother Carl John Tullberg and wife Ella, who lived next door at 1021 Fourth Street. Shirley played often in their back yard and retained very fond memories of "Uncle Carl".
In Bismarck, Shirley attended the beautiful and historic Will Moore Elementary School, a three minute walk from her home. She was a good student, earning all Gs and Es (Good and Excellent).
In 1942, during Shirley's fourth grade year, the family moved to Santa Paula, California. They rented a one-bedroom duplex with a Murphy bed in the living room, at 228 South Fourth Street. Einer joined his step-nephews Arthur Gustav and Carl Henry Tullberg who worked as carpenters in the naval base at Port Hueneme. Ellsworth and Shirley attended Isbell Grammar School, which was and is right across the street from where they lived.
In grammar school, Shirley was a member of the Camp Fire Girls (Cheskchamay troop) from 1944 to 1947. She joined Job's Daughters shortly before her graduation from eighth grade on June 12, 1947 . She took tap dancing lessons and performed at a Job's Daughters dinner honoring parents, with her friends Joella Pitts and Sharon Winn.
Shirley continued with Job's Daughters at Santa Paula High School, until December 1950 (halfway through her senior year). She excelled in high school and was a member of the California Scholastic Federation (CSF).
Mom laughingly told me about two jobs she had during high school which didn't last very long. The first job lasted one day. During her freshman year (1947-1948) she got a job sweeping up hair at a beauty shop on Main Street, at about 8th. Her Algebra teacher (who must have been Miss Bailard) came into the shop and Mom, embarrassed, quit after one day.
The second job lasted a bit longer. In summer 1948, between her freshman and sophomore years, she got an assembly line job at a citrus packing house up the street from where she lived (Santa Paula Citrus Association, 500 Santa Barbara Street). She and other girls picked out moldy lemons as they went by on the belt. Mom had to quit because she discovered that she was allergic to the mold. Her application for a Social Security card shows that she started working there on June 17, 1948. Fortunately, she was there long enough to be in a professionally taken (large format) photograph, perhaps intended for the newspaper. The photo is posted on this memorial.
Like many high school teens in Santa Paula, Shirley worked summers at Burpee's flower and vegetable fields. In January 1947, Burpee, a Philadelphia company, announced that it would make Santa Paula its west coast headquarters, and leased 85 acres on West Telegraph Road. Their office was a Quonset building located off Briggs Road. Shirley and her step-cousin Natalia Tullberg hand-pollinated tomato flowers to assist in the production of Burpee's hybrid tomatoes. Burpee recruited high school girls for these jobs. Mom started working for Burpee's in her freshman year and continued for a few summers afterward, until at least the summer between her junior and senior year (on July 14, 1950, the Santa Paula Chronicle reported that she and Natalia, along with several of their friends - Barbara and Mary Nunn, Geneva Moore, and Betty Garrett - had been recruited by Burpee's for the summer). Natalia and Barbara were photographed in a field of Burpee's flowers for one of their seed catalogs.
Shirley's mother Amelia, and Amelia's step-relative Ethel Tullberg also worked for Burpee's. They were recruited by ads for female field supervisors to supervise high school girls.
Burpee's recruited high school boys for the job of picking bean beetles off the produce.
Shirley's future husband (my father Paul) and his friends worked in the fields picking beetles off the tomatoes, and Shirley remembered the girls slinging some of Burpee's prize tomatoes at the boys, who had nothing to throw back.
Shirley and Paul had a lengthy friendship before they began dating in their junior year. They graduated in 1951 and attended Ventura College for a year or so. Paul also worked on the Shedenhelm citrus ranch, and then enlisted in the Navy. After boot camp in San Diego, he was stationed first in Oahu, then in Kodiak Alaska. During this time, Shirley worked as a "floater" for Sears in Ventura, in the Classified section of the Ventura Star Press, and then at the Disbursing Office at Port Hueneme where her father had worked as a carpenter.
Meanwhile, Paul was granted a month's furlough from March 22 to April 22, 1953. The Santa Paula Chronicle reported that he returned home on March 23, 1954. They were married on Sunday, April 28, 1954 at Shirley's family church, the First Baptist Church of Santa Paula (217 N. 10th) by the Rev. Joseph W. Bruner. Their witnesses were Shirley's attendants Phyllis Huckaby (maid of honor) and Geneva Moore (bridesmaid), and Paul's ushers Robert Welsey "Bob" Sponseller and Roy "Jack" Gatz. Shirley's brother Ellsworth had married Carolyn Richards two years previously, and Carolyn's youngest sister Theresa served as flower girl. Shirley's "borrowed" article was Carolyn's veil. Shirley's pale pink wedding dress was made by Cahill of Beverly Hills, and her wedding photo for the paper was taken by Hal Boucher at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel.
They honeymooned for three weeks in Lake Tahoe, the Redwoods, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boulder Dam, the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park.
On Monday, April 24, 1954, Paul flew to his new assignment with the Naval Air Station at Barber's Point, Oahu. On Saturday, May 1, Shirley's parents drove her to Los Angeles International Airport where she flew on a United Airlines flight to join him. They lived off base and initially chose a beautifully decorated one-room studio behind a house at 405 Royal Hawaiian Avenue in Honolulu, a few blocks from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It was charming, but expensive on a seaman's pay, and a few months later, expecting their first child (me), they moved to a newly-constructed one bedroom home at 85-919 Mill Road in Waianae.
I was born at Tripler Army Hospital in January 1955, and on June 7, 1955, the three of us took the Gen. Edwin Patrick ship back to California. My father Paul was now assigned to the Naval Air Station at North Island (Coronado), San Diego. We lived at 1211 Elm in Palm City (now Imperial Beach). Paul took the ferry to North Island to work. My brother Paul Jr. was born in 1956 at the Navy Hospital on Coronado Island. Mom worked as a Clerk Typist for the Navy at North Island, handling payroll and other duties in the Disbursing Office. Her two Navy civilian jobs, including the one at Port Hueneme just before she was married, totaled two years and three months.
In 1957, Paul and Shirley moved back to Santa Paula. They lived initially in one of the apartments at 536 Acacia from January to June 1957, then moved to 500-1/2 Acacia, a little house behind 500 Acacia which was owned by Leonard and Mayme Dietrich. Shirley worked in the Classified section of the Santa Paula Chronicle (116 N. 10th St.), and Paul attended college while Mayme babysat the children.
In October 1958, they moved to Paul's mother's prior home at 939 West Telegraph. Paul's mother Olive had re-married that year and she and her husband Owen bought a house at 937 Greenwood. Olive had many connections in town and got Shirley a job working for Allen Crosby Hardison of Hardison Ranch Company, at 124 East Main Street, Santa Paula. Shirley worked as Mr. Hardison's secretary and bookkeeper for two and a half years, from 1957 to 1959. She said later that this was her favorite job ever. She left in 1959 during her pregnancy with her third child (daughter Susan).
Meanwhile, Paul had begun to work for the Department of Employment in Ventura and in December 1960, they moved to the Sacramento area in furtherance of Paul's career with the State of California. Shirley worked for Aerojet for four months in 1961 but left while expecting their fourth child (Kirby, born in 1962).
In 1967, the family moved to the new planned development El Dorado Hills. Paul and Shirley worked hard to create a beautiful, private and relaxing yard. Their fifth and last child, Ernie, was born in 1967.
Shirley stayed home for ten years (1962 to 1972) to raise the children. In January 1973, she went to work for the state Franchise Tax Board for three months, but resigned to stay at home. Two years later, she returned to the Franchise Tax Board for six months during tax season (December 1975 to June 1976), and then worked for the State Controller's Office from September to December 1976. In January 1977 she returned to the Franchise Tax Board working mostly five-six months per year during tax season, until she retired in 1994.
Paul, Shirley and the family spent vacations at the cabin built by Olive's husband Owen near Lake Crowley in the Eastern Sierra, or in Santa Paula for visits with Paul and Shirley's parents and days spent at the Rincon beach. After Paul retired in 1986, Paul and Shirley enjoyed many trips to the cabin and short trips to Lake Tahoe.
Paul passed away in 1998. Shirley retired from the Franchise Tax Board in 1994 and her days were filled with doing things with, and for, her family and grandchildren. She loved spending time with her family and was a lot of fun to be with.
There are so many things I would like to say about her - her passing left a great void in our lives. Please click the "Photos" tab to see more photos from her life.
(by Shirley's daughter Gale, Find a Grave Member 47724849)
Shirley was born at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, on March 3, 1933 (3-3-33, as she liked to say). Amazingly, her husband (my father Paul) was born on the same day and year.
Shirley was later baptized at the age of nine, on January 31, 1943, at the Bethel Baptist Church by Pastor Harold E. Doty, after the family had moved to Santa Paula, California.
Mom was named after Shirley Temple and her mother Amelia would sometimes curl her hair in ringlets. Throughout her life, Mom loved watching Shirley Temple movies. Mom found her namesake inspiring (as well as adorable), and shared her optimism, cheerfulness, mischievousness, sense of fun, loyalty, practicality, initiative, resourcefulness and dogged determination.
Shirley's father Einer was born in Elverum, Norway in 1887. When he was three months old, his mother Oline brought him to America and married Lars Olaf Tullberg in Shawano County, Wisconsin. Einer's stepfather Mr. Tullberg was born in Sweden. Einer began his working life after completing the eighth grade. He changed the spelling of his name to "Tulberg" when he was an adult and eventually moved to Bismarck.
Shirley's mother Amelia was German but born near Odessa. Amelia and her parents came to America in 1909, when Amelia was an infant. and they eventually settled on a homestead near Washburn, N.D. Amelia left school after the seventh grade and moved in with her cousin Bertha Steinert in Bismarck. Both girls worked in the Capitol Steam Laundry and Amelia continued to work there at times after her children were born. Amellia had a strong German accent which we found charming - stronger than Lawrence Welk's (at whose clubs in Bismarck and Los Angeles she loved to dance).
Einer and Amelia met and married on Christmas Day, 1929. Their son Ellsworth Eugene was born in 1930, and daughter Shirley (Mom) was born in 1933. They lived at 1017 Fourth Street in Bismarck, just a few blocks from the State Capitol . Einer was a builder and carpenter and among other jobs, he worked on the new, Art Deco style State Capitol building, which replaced the older one that had burned down. When Shirley was five weeks old, Einer fell 34 feet from the scaffolding of the Capitol and broke his left thigh bone and several bones in his left foot. While he was recuperating, the family had virtually no income and moved into the basement of Einer's half-brother Carl John Tullberg and wife Ella, who lived next door at 1021 Fourth Street. Shirley played often in their back yard and retained very fond memories of "Uncle Carl".
In Bismarck, Shirley attended the beautiful and historic Will Moore Elementary School, a three minute walk from her home. She was a good student, earning all Gs and Es (Good and Excellent).
In 1942, during Shirley's fourth grade year, the family moved to Santa Paula, California. They rented a one-bedroom duplex with a Murphy bed in the living room, at 228 South Fourth Street. Einer joined his step-nephews Arthur Gustav and Carl Henry Tullberg who worked as carpenters in the naval base at Port Hueneme. Ellsworth and Shirley attended Isbell Grammar School, which was and is right across the street from where they lived.
In grammar school, Shirley was a member of the Camp Fire Girls (Cheskchamay troop) from 1944 to 1947. She joined Job's Daughters shortly before her graduation from eighth grade on June 12, 1947 . She took tap dancing lessons and performed at a Job's Daughters dinner honoring parents, with her friends Joella Pitts and Sharon Winn.
Shirley continued with Job's Daughters at Santa Paula High School, until December 1950 (halfway through her senior year). She excelled in high school and was a member of the California Scholastic Federation (CSF).
Mom laughingly told me about two jobs she had during high school which didn't last very long. The first job lasted one day. During her freshman year (1947-1948) she got a job sweeping up hair at a beauty shop on Main Street, at about 8th. Her Algebra teacher (who must have been Miss Bailard) came into the shop and Mom, embarrassed, quit after one day.
The second job lasted a bit longer. In summer 1948, between her freshman and sophomore years, she got an assembly line job at a citrus packing house up the street from where she lived (Santa Paula Citrus Association, 500 Santa Barbara Street). She and other girls picked out moldy lemons as they went by on the belt. Mom had to quit because she discovered that she was allergic to the mold. Her application for a Social Security card shows that she started working there on June 17, 1948. Fortunately, she was there long enough to be in a professionally taken (large format) photograph, perhaps intended for the newspaper. The photo is posted on this memorial.
Like many high school teens in Santa Paula, Shirley worked summers at Burpee's flower and vegetable fields. In January 1947, Burpee, a Philadelphia company, announced that it would make Santa Paula its west coast headquarters, and leased 85 acres on West Telegraph Road. Their office was a Quonset building located off Briggs Road. Shirley and her step-cousin Natalia Tullberg hand-pollinated tomato flowers to assist in the production of Burpee's hybrid tomatoes. Burpee recruited high school girls for these jobs. Mom started working for Burpee's in her freshman year and continued for a few summers afterward, until at least the summer between her junior and senior year (on July 14, 1950, the Santa Paula Chronicle reported that she and Natalia, along with several of their friends - Barbara and Mary Nunn, Geneva Moore, and Betty Garrett - had been recruited by Burpee's for the summer). Natalia and Barbara were photographed in a field of Burpee's flowers for one of their seed catalogs.
Shirley's mother Amelia, and Amelia's step-relative Ethel Tullberg also worked for Burpee's. They were recruited by ads for female field supervisors to supervise high school girls.
Burpee's recruited high school boys for the job of picking bean beetles off the produce.
Shirley's future husband (my father Paul) and his friends worked in the fields picking beetles off the tomatoes, and Shirley remembered the girls slinging some of Burpee's prize tomatoes at the boys, who had nothing to throw back.
Shirley and Paul had a lengthy friendship before they began dating in their junior year. They graduated in 1951 and attended Ventura College for a year or so. Paul also worked on the Shedenhelm citrus ranch, and then enlisted in the Navy. After boot camp in San Diego, he was stationed first in Oahu, then in Kodiak Alaska. During this time, Shirley worked as a "floater" for Sears in Ventura, in the Classified section of the Ventura Star Press, and then at the Disbursing Office at Port Hueneme where her father had worked as a carpenter.
Meanwhile, Paul was granted a month's furlough from March 22 to April 22, 1953. The Santa Paula Chronicle reported that he returned home on March 23, 1954. They were married on Sunday, April 28, 1954 at Shirley's family church, the First Baptist Church of Santa Paula (217 N. 10th) by the Rev. Joseph W. Bruner. Their witnesses were Shirley's attendants Phyllis Huckaby (maid of honor) and Geneva Moore (bridesmaid), and Paul's ushers Robert Welsey "Bob" Sponseller and Roy "Jack" Gatz. Shirley's brother Ellsworth had married Carolyn Richards two years previously, and Carolyn's youngest sister Theresa served as flower girl. Shirley's "borrowed" article was Carolyn's veil. Shirley's pale pink wedding dress was made by Cahill of Beverly Hills, and her wedding photo for the paper was taken by Hal Boucher at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel.
They honeymooned for three weeks in Lake Tahoe, the Redwoods, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boulder Dam, the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park.
On Monday, April 24, 1954, Paul flew to his new assignment with the Naval Air Station at Barber's Point, Oahu. On Saturday, May 1, Shirley's parents drove her to Los Angeles International Airport where she flew on a United Airlines flight to join him. They lived off base and initially chose a beautifully decorated one-room studio behind a house at 405 Royal Hawaiian Avenue in Honolulu, a few blocks from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It was charming, but expensive on a seaman's pay, and a few months later, expecting their first child (me), they moved to a newly-constructed one bedroom home at 85-919 Mill Road in Waianae.
I was born at Tripler Army Hospital in January 1955, and on June 7, 1955, the three of us took the Gen. Edwin Patrick ship back to California. My father Paul was now assigned to the Naval Air Station at North Island (Coronado), San Diego. We lived at 1211 Elm in Palm City (now Imperial Beach). Paul took the ferry to North Island to work. My brother Paul Jr. was born in 1956 at the Navy Hospital on Coronado Island. Mom worked as a Clerk Typist for the Navy at North Island, handling payroll and other duties in the Disbursing Office. Her two Navy civilian jobs, including the one at Port Hueneme just before she was married, totaled two years and three months.
In 1957, Paul and Shirley moved back to Santa Paula. They lived initially in one of the apartments at 536 Acacia from January to June 1957, then moved to 500-1/2 Acacia, a little house behind 500 Acacia which was owned by Leonard and Mayme Dietrich. Shirley worked in the Classified section of the Santa Paula Chronicle (116 N. 10th St.), and Paul attended college while Mayme babysat the children.
In October 1958, they moved to Paul's mother's prior home at 939 West Telegraph. Paul's mother Olive had re-married that year and she and her husband Owen bought a house at 937 Greenwood. Olive had many connections in town and got Shirley a job working for Allen Crosby Hardison of Hardison Ranch Company, at 124 East Main Street, Santa Paula. Shirley worked as Mr. Hardison's secretary and bookkeeper for two and a half years, from 1957 to 1959. She said later that this was her favorite job ever. She left in 1959 during her pregnancy with her third child (daughter Susan).
Meanwhile, Paul had begun to work for the Department of Employment in Ventura and in December 1960, they moved to the Sacramento area in furtherance of Paul's career with the State of California. Shirley worked for Aerojet for four months in 1961 but left while expecting their fourth child (Kirby, born in 1962).
In 1967, the family moved to the new planned development El Dorado Hills. Paul and Shirley worked hard to create a beautiful, private and relaxing yard. Their fifth and last child, Ernie, was born in 1967.
Shirley stayed home for ten years (1962 to 1972) to raise the children. In January 1973, she went to work for the state Franchise Tax Board for three months, but resigned to stay at home. Two years later, she returned to the Franchise Tax Board for six months during tax season (December 1975 to June 1976), and then worked for the State Controller's Office from September to December 1976. In January 1977 she returned to the Franchise Tax Board working mostly five-six months per year during tax season, until she retired in 1994.
Paul, Shirley and the family spent vacations at the cabin built by Olive's husband Owen near Lake Crowley in the Eastern Sierra, or in Santa Paula for visits with Paul and Shirley's parents and days spent at the Rincon beach. After Paul retired in 1986, Paul and Shirley enjoyed many trips to the cabin and short trips to Lake Tahoe.
Paul passed away in 1998. Shirley retired from the Franchise Tax Board in 1994 and her days were filled with doing things with, and for, her family and grandchildren. She loved spending time with her family and was a lot of fun to be with.
There are so many things I would like to say about her - her passing left a great void in our lives. Please click the "Photos" tab to see more photos from her life.
