Shirley Charlton

" A Great Life!"

Shirley Lillian Charlton was born to Walter and Lillian Evans in Montreal. She and her brother Stuart grew up Montreal and Detroit and had a wonderful childhood with their father Walter working for CNR which gave them travel passes for the railway. She used one of her final family passes in her 18th year to travel all the way west by rail to Vancouver in 1942 to stay at the new Hotel Vancouver.

After high school, Shirley attended the Montréal Notre Dame Secretarial School. While working in Montreal, most notably as the secretary to the president of International Paper, she spent her free time golfing, swimming, playing piano and skiing. In April 1950, she was part of the Grey Rocks Ski Club in a westerly trip to ski from Sunshine to Mount Assiniboine for a week. Little would she guess her love for the mountains would come full circle.

Shirley married George Ridley Charlton of Montreal in 1953 and they raised three children in Montreal and later Edmonton and she would later say that moving to Alberta was one of the best moves of her life.

In 1991, newly retired and tired of the big city, she strategically moved to small town Canmore where she lived the last 23 years of her life with grace and independence. Arthritis made walking difficult in her last decade, but driving was a life long pleasure and her blue Buick was a common site around town. The kindness of many strangers and friends gave her the independence she loved, from her friends who grocery shopped with her to strangers who cleared her car of snow; to folks who just helped… she often commented on the small town thoughtfulness of Canmore folks.

Shirley passed away peacefully in the Canmore Hospital March 13th, quickly and unexpectedly, the way she wished. George predeceased her in 1992 as well as brother Stuart in 2013. She leaves her daughter Anne in Calgary, sons Jim in Edmonton and Tom (Linda) and granddaughters Reka and Nicole in Calgary. We were blessed with a wonderful Mom and Grammie and every decade she lived was interesting and rewarding. She took great joy in her children, grandchildren and their pets.

A Celebration of Life tea was held on Friday, April 10, 2015

in St. Michael's Anglican Church hall in Canmore.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Bow Valley SPCA, 123 Bow Meadows Cres, Canmore, AB T1W 2W8 would be her wish.

Services provided by Russ Reynolds and Bow River Funeral Service.