Shirley Ann Osmer Jaques was born to Willie and Girley Downing Osmer Jan. 11, 1941, in Kennett, Mo., and died Oct. 1 2017, at the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City at the age of 76 years, 8 months and 20 days.
The youngest of five children, she passed her formative years in the bootheel of Missouri, attending school, church and working in the fields picking cotton.
It was at Holcomb High that Shirley met Wayne Jaques, the young man she would marry March 29, 1959, in Bragg City, Mo. The couple spent their 58 years of marriage making homes throughout the south and midwest, following the path of Wayne’s career in retail.
Shirley approached each move as a chance to hone her creative talents in homemaking and utilize her tremendous landscaping skills. They made homes in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and, finally, Iowa.
Along the way, they nurtured three children, Angie, Jacque and John.
Shirley was an at-home mom until her youngest child began school, at which time she took a job working at a dress shop in North Little Rock, Ark. It was there that she worked until in 1989 it was once again time for a move, this time to Iowa.
With a new rural lifestyle came a new ambition, and in 2000 Shirley opened a tearoom in Ogden, Iowa called the Sugarplum 2000. She happily and successfully operated her tearoom until she retired in 2006.
Retirement allowed Shirley to more readily express her unending creativity. She could often be found tickling the ivories of her baby grand piano in her music room or sketching a portrait of one of her children or of one of her favorite classical composers, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach among others.
Perhaps her greatest creative endeavor was realized when, writing under the pseudonym of S. J. Blackwell, she penned “The Unveiling of Jessie,” a work of fiction based loosely on Osmer family history. In December 2016 Shirley’s family had the manuscript published in hardcover as a Christmas present that she cherished.
When she wasn’t landscaping the Jaques grounds or painting entire homes or creating masterful pieces of artwork or literary masterpieces, Shirley enjoyed listening to her classical music. She had a voracious appetite for music. It was evident in many aspects of her life.
She and Wayne were often seen tooling around town, sporting their “Bthoven” license plates, and she attended numerous musical events throughout her life, running the gamut from symphony orchestras to rock concerts to the various musical endeavors of her children and grandchildren.
Shirley passed peacefully Oct. 1, 2017, as Wayne spoke to her softly and held her hand.
She was preceded in death by her mother; father; siblings; and her daughter, Angie.
Shirley is survived by her husband, Wayne; daughter, Jacque (Marc) Hoffman of Grand Junction; son, John Jaques of Albania; grandchildren, Samantha, Josie, Nathan, Hayden and Nick; great-grandchildren, Adelyn and Aiden; as well as her loving nieces and nephews; and many special friends.
