Shirley Katherine Poulsen, our beloved mother and a lifelong resident of Berkeley California, passed from this life on the 8th of February at Alta Bates Hospital. She was 95 years of age.
Born August 11,1924 to Lenius J. Petersen and Rose Douglas Petersen in San Francisco, she attended school in Berkeley and graduated high school in 1942. Like many young women of her generation, she volunteered for the war effort by serving with the Red Cross and the U.S.O. After the war she began employment as a secretary at General Motors Corporation, where she met our father.
She married Edgerton E. Poulsen, our father and a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 24,1949. Together they had we three children, Debra, Douglas, and Susan. In July 1954, two months before the birth of his youngest daughter Susan, Edgerton was lost to a boating accident in Idaho.
After Dad’s death, Mom held our family together and raised all three of us. With ages ranging from newborn to three years, she never failed to make a happy and loving home for us despite very difficult circumstances.
In 1959, with the three of us in school, Mother began employment at the University of California in Berkeley. Her career there would continue for the next 32 years as she took great pride in editing the University’s course catalogs as well as various school and college announcements. She would retire there as a Publications Coordinator at the office of publications.
Mother is preceded in death by her parents Lenius and Rose, her only sibling Norma (“Nolly”) Goude, and her beloved husband Edgerton.
She is survived by her three children, Debra Lynne Laubacher of Sacramento CA, Douglas James Poulsen of Berkeley CA, and Susan Nannette Poulsen of Berkeley CA. She is also survived by two grandchildren, Gregory Douglas Laubacher of Sacramento CA and Alexander Jordan Laubacher, living in the Czech Republic.
Our mother was a very patient and kind hearted woman who cared greatly for her family, friends, coworkers and neighbors. It was always important to her to make sure that those around her felt happy and loved.
Everyone thinks they have a great mother, but even as kids we KNEW we had a great mom. Everyone else told us so. She would mother all who came into our house, even those who had perfectly good mothers of their own.
Mom, thank you for everything you gave us. God bless and keep you. Always.
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