VERDA TANKERSLEY SHAW

Verda Tankersley Shaw, age 100 of Mertzon, passed away on April 12, 2010. A visitation will be held from 6 pm to 8 pm, on Saturday, April 17, 2010, at Robert Massie Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 18, 2010, at Good Shepherd Church with Fr. Stan Burdock officiating. The burial will follow at 4:00 p.m. at Mertzon Cemetery. Verda Shaw lived in Irion County and was an active part of the community for 100 years. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Mertzon, and at the time of her death was the only living Charter Member of the '48 Study Club. Over the years she was very active with the Irion County Public Library, as room mother for her kids in school and Vacation Bible School. Verda and Joe Shaw raised four kids and helped them all go to college where all earned advanced degrees. She also saw to it that each of them gained a working knowledge of Spanish because of the diverse culture in which we live and work. Verda also has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Verda has always been an active ranchwoman as well. For all the time Joe and Verda ranched together, Verda ran her own Hereford cattle '" branded '˜Lazy S '" T'™ -- following her pioneer ranching father in that business. Verda was the youngest daughter of ranchman, banker and business man, Fayette Tankersley and Annie G. White Tankersley. She was born in Mertzon, in the same house where she was married, the same year that the Mertzon Central School building was built. Verda came from a large family, having 9 brothers and sisters - Faye (Mason), Lake, Onieta (Smith), Leta (Crawford), Boyce, Claude Loil, Myra, Verna B. (Atkinson), and Max. Verda saw a lot of change in 100 years. She saw the automobile replace the horse and buggy, but she never did like to drive (and we didn'™t like it either!). In 1930, Verda went off to college in Denton (now TWU) aboard the train with her belongings in a steamer trunk. She and Joe went on their honeymoon to Paris (Paris -- Texas) in a 1931 Model A Ford coupe with a rumble seat (and a suitcase full of kittens courtesy of her younger brother Max). Verda's most memorable teaching job was as a school marm on the old Bar S ranch. In the days before modern school buses and good highways, Verda took a job in 1934 to teach the ranch children, particularly the children of ranch manager L. L. Farr, Jr. and his wife (affectionately known as "Ma" Farr). Joe Shaw worked for the Bar S (started at 75 cents per day plus room and board), but in September, when Verda arrived at the ranch, he was tending cattle in Oklahoma. Very soon after Joe returned, he had milked the cows at Headquarters. He was taking two big pails of milk to the spring house and passed by the yard near the guest house where Verda Tankersley was playing with the Farr kids. The kids called out to "Seek" (Ma Farr's nickname for Joe). The surprise of seeing a beautiful young woman there on the ranch made him nearly drop the milk, and he did spill some of it on his clothes. Naturally he had to introduce himself'¦ Joe and Verda were married in June of 1937 in the front parlor of the Tankersley family home place in Mertzon, the house where Annette and Roy Williams live today. They made their first home at the West Line Camp at the Bar S, no phone, no electricity (but Joe did get a pay increase to $100 per month). Verda was a horse woman too. She was a riding instructor at Camp Mystic at Kerrville during summers off from college. Joe Shaw's string of horses at the Bar S included Necktie, Top, Cracker Jack, Chubby, Spottie, Cry Baby, Backie, Little Bull and Tickle Toe. Verda's favorite was Top, but she also rode Chubby a lot. After they moved to their Dove Creek Ranch, Verda and Joe raised a colt named Capp that became a valued mount and a family pet. Capp made a game of trying to rake you off, and he would eat anything. Once he ate Verda's best brassiere off the clothes line and he also ate the big nipple off the milk bottle that was used to feed doggie lambs. In 1938 they moved to their Dove Creek Ranch and started raising their family there. Verda and Joe moved into Mertzon before their two youngest kids started school in 1954. In 1958 their house (the old Cravens house) burned to the ground, and they moved back to the ranch for 6 months while they built a new house on the same lot. After 100 years of ranch life, green grass, rattlesnakes, fire, drought, tragic loss of loved ones and all the rest, Verda says, "I guess I've just about seen it all'¦" And as one of the last things Joe Shaw was able to say to Verda just before he died, "Well, Lady -- it's been a wonderful life." She was preceded in death by her husband, Joe William Shaw, Sr, as well as by her beloved daughter, Janet Faye Middlebrook. She was the last of the 10 Tankersley children to pass. Verda is survived by her sons Dr. Joe W. Shaw, Jr and his wife Carol of Mertzon, Stephen L Shaw and his wife Nancy of Midland, and Dr. Terry D. Shaw and his wife Anne of Broomfield, Colorado. She also had 7 grandchildren Steven A. Middlebrook and his wife Patsy (San Antonio), Lisa M. Oetken and her fiancée Wade Griffin (Double Oak, Texas), Kimberly Ann Zander and her husband Kirk (Waco), Katherine Lynn Cox and her husband The Rev. Dr. Sean A. Cox (College Station), William Keeling Shaw and his wife Kristin (Austin), Lauren Shaw (San Antonio), and Theresa Shaw (Fort Collins, Colorado). Her six great grandchildren are Bryce Middlebrook, Anna Zander and Madeline Zander, Rebeckah Cox and Brian Cox and Torin Shaw In addition to her immediate family, since she and Joe were from large nuclear families, she is survived by two sisters in law and a host of nieces and nephews on both sides of the family. Mother'™s notes to us always included 'œGen 31:49'�: 'œThe Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.'� Her sons and grandchildren will honor our Mother as her pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will be her nephews on both the Tankersley and Shaw sides of the family. The family feels the sincerest gratitude to the staff and residents of the Royal Estates during the time Verda lived there as well as to the excellent, caring, gentle staff of Meadow Creek Nursing Care Center during the last several years. Mother was also blessed by the loving companionship of Tina Wyatt this last year. In lieu of flowers, please make memorial remembrances to the County Library Fund (founded by the 48th Study Club) (Friends of the Library '" P.O. Box 654 '" Mertzon 76941), The First Baptist Church of Mertzon (P.O. Box 796) or West Texas Boys Ranch.