Shirley Jean Howard Ball, 74, passed peacefully from Earth in Denton on March 2, 2017, after a brief illness. With Jim, her husband of 54 years, Shirley had been a nine-year resident of Bartonville, where the couple moved to enjoy the serenity of their home and family.
Shirley was born in Overton, TX, on June 9, 1942, where here father was an oil field worker and later Humble service station owner. The Howard’s lived in nearby New London before moving to Commerce in the early 1950s, where Shirley graduated from Commerce High School and East Texas State College with a B.S. in Music Education, majoring in pipe organ. She taught music in Dallas schools until US Army service called Jim in 1966.
Returning to Texas in 1969, with their first son, James Howard Ball, Shirley and Jim lived in Garland, while Jim began a 30-year-long, public relations/communications career with Dallas-based Dr Pepper Company. After Aaron Nelson Ball came along, she was doubly active as a Cub Scout leader, PTA counselor, soccer coach, band, choir, and baseball booster, Republican Party activist, and committee member at the Dallas Athletic Club. One of Shirley’s major year-long activities was collecting ornaments and planning for the next Christmas season. A member of Denton Country Club, she also loved playing her piano, listening to classical and jazz music, attending concerts, gardening, genealogy research, rug hooking, reading, cooking, excellent wines, traveling, and most of all her family.
Shirley was preceded in death by parents Clint and Melba Howard and brother, Benny. She is survived by Jim; sons, James Howard and Aaron Nelson Ball (Kelly) of Corinth, TX; and grandsons, James Brett Ball and James Ethan Ball of Corinth.
Memorials may be made to Scottish Rite Hospital, Dallas, St. Jude’s Hospital, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. God just got another winner.
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