Shirley Ann Rohrbaugh peacefully passed into the arms of Jesus, March 4th, 2023 with her children gathered round.
Shirley was born on April 1, 1938 to William Howard and Nora Ann (Beck) Ginest the fifth of six children born to this union.
She was raised on a farm south of Ingalls, Kansas where she attended grade school. After the Great Depression the family moved to Cimarron, Kansas where her father worked at the grain elevator. Shirley attended Cimarron High School where she was very active in music and theatre. This is where she met her one true love, Edward Eugene Rorhbaugh. Shirley worked at Clark’s Pharmacy as a soda jerk during her school years and her repeat customer was Ed. She told us she would write little notes on the lid of his malt and that she had found one that Dad had saved all these years.
Shirley was gifted musically and was offered a vocal scholarship to a junior college, but she said “yes” to Ed’s proposal of marriage and after graduation the couple was married on September 2, 1956 and moved to the farm north of Genoa. The couple was blessed with three children Janel Diane, Dee Eugene and Dana Renee’.
Shirley was definitely a helpmate to her husband supporting him in their farm/ranch operation making countless lunches for hired men and driving tractor, trucks and moving equipment while maintaining her beautiful yard.
She loved her family, cooking meals, making clothes, raising a garden and making our house a haven.
Shirley loved to play the piano, playing by ear as well as by note. She has a wonderful alto voice that she used singing at Church, weddings, funerals, Community Cantata, Vespers, Community Choir and the choir director at the United Methodist Church for many years as well as with her family gathered around the piano teaching her children parts.
In her mid years she enjoyed watching her grandchildren play football, basketball, volleyball, track, gymnastics and dance. In Shirley’s later years she enjoyed making quilts, crocheting slippers and potholders, playing cards with her friends in Genoa, reading, playing piano for church and later for her friends at Aspen Leaf.
Shirley is proceeded in death by her beloved husband, Ed, her parents, Howard and Nora Ginest, parents-in-law, Orval and Doris Rohrbaugh, her siblings; Lois Holland, Brother’s, Bill, Don, Gary, Butch Ginest and her great grandson, Alton Wesley Rohrbaugh.
Shirley is survived by her three children, eleven grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren and one anxiously waiting to join the family. She is also survived by her sisters - in-law Connie and Joan Ginest, numerous nieces, nephews and friends.
Memorial Contributions can be made to:
Plains Community Church
203 Main Street
Genoa, Colorado 80818
Aspen Leaf Assisted Living
Limon, Colorado 80828