Shirley Joanne LeRoy

Shirley Joanne (Brundege) LeRoy was born on August 2, 1936, in Moreland, Kansas to Russell May Brundege and Orpha Margaret (Ludlow) Brundege. She attended schools in Kansas, Texas and New Mexico, graduating from Hoisington, Kansas High School in 1954. She worked for Duckwall 5&10 as a teen, then Southwestern Bell in Colorado and Kansas Power & Light as a young adult. Shirley married Loyd ‘Mike’ Maloney on December 16, 1956. Of this union, three daughters were born: Mica Lyn (Maloney) Pryor, Debra Diane (Maloney) Haymaker, and Marla Ann (Maloney) Ropp, and they resided in Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Shirley was a stay at home mom while her children were young and took great pride in nurturing and raising the girls, sewing their clothes, and engaging them in their church and school community. When her daughters were teens, Shirley worked for Floyd & Lynn Eye Clinic for several years. In January 1980, Shirley married Billy Joe LeRoy in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and moved with him to a home on Oolagah Lake in NE Oklahoma for 25 years. In 2009, they moved to Nowata, Oklahoma and Shirley continued to live independently there for 11 years after Bill’s death in 2012. Shirley was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness in 1990 and was active serving in the Nowata Congregation until her death. She was a woman of great faith and nothing made her happier than sharing the love of Jehovah. Shirley found childlike joy in simple things and was very creative. She had a talent and lifelong passion for sewing, quilting, baking, and painting. Her favorite media were watercolor and colored pencils. She loved birds, especially blue jays and cardinals, butterflies and flowers. Her home was warm and inviting, and neat as a pin, and you could often find her baking her famous sheet cake or tending to the bird feeders and flowers outside. She was active until the last days, walking or riding her bike. Shirley had many devoted friends in the Congregation and community. She always had a ready smile and an easy laugh, which she maintained to the very end. Shirley loved to travel, and she and Bill travelled extensively in the US and abroad for many years, including Central America, the Caribbean, Alaska, Canada, Japan and many US states. She is preceded in death by her parents, two brothers (Floyd Mae Brundege and Bobbie Lee Brundege), and her husband Bill. Shirley is survived by her sister Mary Ellen (Brundege) Stambaugh and husband Gary, three daughters, Mica and her ex-husband Bobby Pryor, Debbie and her husband Roger Haymaker, and Marla and her husband Jeffrey Ropp, as well as six grandchildren Kelsey (Haymaker) Berry, Jensen (Ropp) Zearley, Stanton Ropp, Ryan Haymaker, Arlee Pryor, and Ryce Haymaker, two great grandchildren Everly Berry and Everett Berry, and a host of relatives and friends. Shirley passed away peacefully in her sleep on January 7, 2024, at Oxford Glen Memory Care in Owasso, Oklahoma, surrounded in the last days by beloved friends and family members. Shirley will be laid to rest in Cedar Vale, Kansas next to her beloved Bill in the coming weeks. Services to be announced. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Bartlesville Art Association.

Tributes

Shirley Joanne LeRoy

August 2, 1936 - January 7, 2024