By James A Larsen, His Brother

Shirley was born 29 May 1921. He was the first child of Alma Larsen and Ruby McKinnon Larsen. The family was living in Randolph, Utah at that time, and he was given a name and a blessing by Arthur McKinnon, his grandfather, on September 4, 1921. His mother was raised in Randolph.

Alma was drafted into the army in 1917; and when the war ended, he came back and resumed his civilian life and went to work for Oluf, C Larsen, Jr. an older brother living in Randolph. There he met Ruby and they were married.

After Shirley's birth, the little family moved to Salt Lake City and lived with his father's parents for a time. Their second child was born November 12, 1922. This was another boy and he was given the name of Arthur McKinnon Larsen. Their marriage was not a happy one since Alma was away most of the time while working as a salesman. Ruby couldn't cope with the problems of living with Alma's parents and being homesick for Randolph. She went back to Randolph to her parents and they were shortly divorced. She remarried shortly thereafter to a previous boyfriend, John Peart, and moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming. The two little boys were left in the care of their father and his mother, Johanna Larsen.

Johanna, his grandmother, had her family to care for besides Alma and Shirley. She had her aging husband Oluf who had moved in with them when Anna Marie died. She also had LeRoi, a handicapped child of her daughter Hannah who passed away a few years before Shirley was born. He was blind and deaf. He was the son of Ray Cornia and was about five-years-old when Shirley was born. He was left in Grandma Johanna's care when his mother died in 1920. His father went to Wyoming to find work and later returned and took LeRoi with him.

Life was fine but Johanna had a hard time caring for the two boys, and Alma decided to send the younger child, Art, to live with his mother in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The two boys spent time with both families, but Shirley spent his early youth living with his maternal grandparents and his father Alma. His little brother came to visit during the summers. When Arthur was born Shirley had trouble saying baby and called him buby so the baby became known as Bub.

Shirley received lots of love and care from many aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, and a sister that lived with him or near to him, and he grew to love them all. His grandfather Oluf died in November 1929 and Alma married a girl he met before he went into the a Army by the name of Margaret Alice James. She was a nurse and worked at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. They were married January 1, 1930 and became his very special step mother. Then Alma and Margaret were sealed for time and all eternity in June of 1930 in the Salt Lake Temple, and Shirley was sealed to them at that time. As Alma and Margaret's family grew, he enjoyed having more brothers and a sister. They were: James A who was born October 28, 1930, JoHanna (known as either Joan or Buddy) was born June 30, 1932, Dean was born November 6, 1933, and Boyd was born July 21,1938.

He attended public schools as he grew up and graduated from South High School in the Spring of 1938. His many friends called him Garr, and a few gave him another nickname of Snake. We don't know where that name came from, but recall hearing it. His father was the Scout Master of Troop 64 in the Sugar House Ward, and he was involved in many service projects and campouts.

Upon graduating he was given the problem of what to do after high school; but the job market was very scarce, and he couldn't find any kind of work. There was a Federal project to help the unemployed called the Civilian Conservation Corps or better know as the "CCC". Men were given jobs in order to help building camp grounds, do flood control, and many other projects. The workers lived in groups like the army and were paid a small salary. Shirley joined this and was sent to work at the National Parks in Southern Utah.

During the summer of 1939, he was working at Zion National Park. They were building camp sites and picnic areas. There were few paved roads and the area was quite primitive. He had eaten some green apples and became sick. When he did not recover after a day or two, he was taken in the back of a truck to the St. George hospital. The rough roads and uncomfortable ride didn't help any. When he arrived at the hospital, he was diagnosed to have appendicitis and it had ruptured. At that time, when an appendix ruptured there wasn't much they could do for the patient. Since he was deathly sick, a telephone call was made to his home in Salt Lake City to inform his parents of his condition.

His parents didn't have a car that could make the trip, so they borrowed a car from one of his friends and made the trip to the St. George hospital. Margaret who was a registered nurse stayed by his side and did everything that could be done for him. His father brought the borrowed car home and left Margaret to care for him even knowing that he could not survive with the medicine that was available at that time. He died on September 24, 1939. His body was brought home and the viewing was held in the living room of the family home and the funeral in the Sugar House Ward Chapel. He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

It was many years before the family and especially Alma were able to recover from the loss of their son who had grown into a fine young man. Later Margaret and Alma were buried next to him.