Mary Shields

TORRINGTON, WYOMING...........Funeral services for MARY RIDLEY SHIELDS, 95, will be held at 10:00a.m. Monday, August 27, 2007 at the First Wyoming United Presbyterian Church with Reverend David Lee officiating. Burial will follow in the Valley View Cemetery. Mary died at the Goshen Care Center August 21, 2007. Memorials may be made to the Goshen Care Center. Visitation will be Sunday from 3:00p.m. till 7:00p.m. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Mary was born May 8, 1912 the 7th child of John (Rattlesnake Jack) and Phoebe (Young) Ridley at the family homestead on the middle fork of Little Crazy Woman Creek south of Buffalo, Wyoming. She received her education at Johnson County High School and at Grand Island, Nebraska Business College where she met her future husband. In 1936 she went to Washington D.C. to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She married G. Russell Shields in Stafford, Virginia on February 23, 1939 and the couple continued to work and live in Washington D.C. until 1943 when they returned to Wyoming and lived on a farm south of Torrington. Mary worked for the Torrington newspapers in the 1960's (the Torrington News and then the Torrington Telegram after the two newspapers merged). Mary was also active with Goshen County 4-H and the Goshen County Fair for many years. After Russell's death in 1990 she continued living on the farm until 1995 when she moved to Torrington. Mary was a member of the Grass Roots Gals Garden Club and the FirstWyoming United Presbyterian Church. Mary is survived by her daughter, Christine Foland and her husband Jack of Lyman, Nebraska; sons, Calvin and Krimi Shields of Gering, Nebraska, Art Michael Shields and his wife Janice and Timothy Russell Shields and his wife Donni all of Torrington; seventeen grandchildren; and twenty-eight great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two sisters, Janet Smith and Arta Herman; four brothers, Lawrence Ridley, Irvin Ridley, Jesse Ridley, and Voler Ridley; a son Fred Shields; a daughter Ethel Marlatt; and a grandson Matthew Guy Marlatt.

Mary Shields

May 8, 1912 - August 21, 2007