On June 20, 2011 Mrs. Shirley Joan Mark passed away peacefully at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops at the age of 78 years.

Her loving husband Ben Mark, sister Catherine Clayton of Anaheim, California and her husband Lloyd, survives Shirley. Also surviving Shirley is: Ron Linklater of Red Deer, Alberta and Carol Roach of Stettler, Alberta; Keith and Janet Jordan of Sutton Coldfield, England and David and Margaret Dale of Tamworth, Staffordshire, England; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Her parents Hubert and Connie Izon, her sisters Doris Linklater and Eileen Bidoulph, predeceased Shirley.

Shirley was raised on her dad's farm in Dauphin, Manitoba and loved to get on her horse and round up the cattle along with her dog Bobbie.

Shirley was born in Dauphin, Manitoba on November 8, 1932 and attended Dauphin Collegiate and Little's Business College. She worked for Manitoba Telephone but was let go when she married Ben in 1955. They moved to Calgary where Shirley worked as dispatcher for Canadian Freightways and later prepared flooring estimates for McPherson's Flooring in Calgary. Shirley attended the University of California, San Louis Obispo completing their proofreading and typesetter courses with honours. She then worked as a proofreader for Parker Brothers Printing that printed legal descriptions in Los Angeles. While proofreading for the Indio Daily News (near Palm Springs) Shirley received rave reviews from Virgil Pinkly, publisher of the Los Angeles Times as to how she improved the quality of the paper. Shirley then went to Honolulu as a proofreader and again was acclaimed for her professionalism. Shirley then worked several years as proofreader for the Independent Journal, San Rafael, California. After moving to Massachusetts for a short time, Shirley was proofreader and typesetter for The Sun, Colorado Springs, Colorado for several years and attended the I.T.U. graphics school. Moving back to Canada Shirley was co-founder with Ben of the Senior Connector in Kamloops, British Columbia. Shirley wrote her column "Thinking Out Loud" for the next ten years and a few months beyond during the transition to the new owners, Mike and Lori Keetch.

Shirley was extra ordinarily adept at research and began a search of her parents ancestry. It involved recording hours of conversation with her parents while they visited us and then going to England and speaking to living relatives, lawyers, clergy and also researching church records until she found the answers. It was a fascinating trip and gave great satisfaction as now she could tell the Izon history verbatim with dates, times, people's names and culture and places her parents traveled during their early years in England as well as 200 or more years of people long since deceased. Catherine and Lloyd fleshed it out and computerized her research as well as their own research into a wall-sized genealogical masterpiece.
Shirley enjoyed the many printing and publishing conventions held in Montreal, Toronto, Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, San Diego, etc. After moving about throughout her working career Shirley had little interest in traveling beyond a days drive from Kamloops although she did travel to Winnipeg, Red Deer, Calgary and Vancouver on occasion. She always enjoyed returning "home" to Kamloops as it was the safest, most comfortable, predictable dry climate encountered in her travels.

Living on her dad's farm precluded Shirley from participating in many of the after-school sporting activities because she had to catch a horse-drawn sleigh in the winter and horse-drawn wagon in spring and fall. Nevertheless Shirley enjoyed a variety of sports including golf, racquetball, bowling, swimming, dancing, and card games. However, Shirley's arthritis took the joy out of many of her sports activities and eventually sold her golf clubs and bowling ball and attire. During the last few years Shirley would ride in the golf cart, tend the flag and search for errant balls. She worked out at the Tournament Capital Centre where she walked the circuit and ran the gamut of exercise equipment under the supervision of TCC trainers.

Shirley made friends with a squirrel, called Charlie, on McArthur Island and fed him unsalted peanuts each day. We would drive up, honk the horn and Charlie would come running to greet us. One day Shirley heard a chit chit noise and sure enough it was Charlie. They had a great conversation until Charlie reached the peanuts and began eating one to Shirley's enjoyment. Shirley, having come from Manitoba, thought the California Big Horn Sheep where exotic animals and we would spend considerable time driving Shuswap road to follow their grazing habits. Along the way Shirley kept an eye on eagles, osprey, swans, geese, crows, songbirds, coyotes, bears and, in the spring, watched the antics of the newborn calves on the cattle calving grounds. While in town Shirley would go to McGowan Park and sit by the pond and watch the geese, ducks, yellow and red winged black birds, cotes and many other birds and small animals. One day a muskrat crossed by her feet on his way to the water. She loved the natural life and all its variations.

Shirley was a creative and absorbed cook, a water colourist and avid crossword solver. She enjoyed movies, theater, and pretty well all genres of music. But her passion was collecting books and poetry.

The following was one of her favourite pieces --- she felt it talked about her philosophy of life and life after death on earth.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush,
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there; I did not die."

The family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks for the professional and compassionate care Shirley received while in Royal Inland Hospital. Shirley always had a credible regard for RIH. Shirley was completely comfortable with all of Dr. Bantock's care and treatment. While in the Step Down Unit, Dr. Steyn handled Shirley with delicacy and considerable thought having performed all necessary available procedures to help Shirley's recovery. She did show improvement, but the breakdown of the inflamed pancreas, kidneys, and lung congestion was too much for her frail condition to handle and after several days of struggle and fight, she passed away quietly and peacefully.

If you wish, please do what you can to help the Step Down Unit and ICU with your much-needed assistance. Thank you for your consideration, Ben, Catherine and Lloyd and Mark family.

Memorial Service will be held in the church on Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 3:30 p.m. with the Rev. Isabel Healy-Morrow of St Georges Anglican Church, 308 Royal Ave., (376-3243) officiating. Shirley wished to be cremated; her ashes will be placed at her father and mother's graves in Winnipeg. The burial service to be conducted by Peter Vanderlily of Kilarney, Manitoba.

Condolences may be expressed at
www.schoenings.com