Shirley E. Ramsey

Shirley Elaine (Cobb) Ramsey, legendary nurse, accomplished organist, loving mother and faithful wife, of Crowley, died peacefully April 29 at Community Hospice in Burleson.
At age 82, she ended a decade-long fight with multiple health problems as her family sang her favorite hymn, “It is Well with my Soul” in four-part harmony at her bedside.
She was born July 8, 1934 in Beloit, Wisconsin to Francis L. and Artella G. Cobb and lived most of her life in Ohio.
She received her degree in nursing from Miami Valley Hospital School of Nursing in Dayton, Ohio, and she passed the exam making her a registered nurse in 1953.
During her 44-year career as a nurse, she built a reputation so strong that years after she retired nurses talked about her knowledge of medicine and her unmatched ability to start a difficult IV with only one stick. After working in operating rooms and as a nursing supervisor, she sought another challenge. She studied database programming and helped the Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus, Ohio implement a computer system and merge the records of two hospitals.
More important to her than her profession were her husband and family. She attended Apostolic Bible Institute where she met the love of her life. She married Rev. Robert L. Ramsey Aug. 30, 1958, and they have remained madly in love for more than 58 years. Together the couple had six children. The Ramseys formed a family team. Sleeping very little, Shirley made her husband’s ministry and her children’s education and upbringing a priority over her own successful career. She taught herself calculus in a few hours to help one daughter prepare for a test. While working nights, she shorted herself on sleep to drive her children to music lessons, and she regularly turned her children’s science fair projects into family activities.
She loved music and learned organ, piano, saxophone, guitar, bass guitar, clarinet and French horn. She also loved to teach music so much that she learned to play guitar for the sole purpose of teaching a fellow church member. She continued teaching piano until her illness prevented her from doing so. She also enjoyed studying genealogy. She tracked detailed and hard-to-find information on her own family tree, her friends’ family trees and her children’s prospective spouses.
Coupled with her support of her husband and family was her own love for God. She used her talents as an organist and pianist to support her husband’s ministry, to teach others to worship through music and to enhance her own worship. Although she was an excellent musician, she actively improved her piano skills until she no longer had the strength. She was a member of First United Pentecostal Family Church of Cleburne, where she and the family received much love and support during her illness.
She learned the deepest human suffering with the loss of her youngest daughter Lynnette Kaye Ramsey in 1973 and her oldest son, James Michael Ramsey in 1974.
She also was preceded in death by two grandchildren, Robert Michael Ziriak (1990) and Lauren Jeanay Ziriak (1999); brother, Johnny Cobb; sister, Norma Jean Boone; brother, Francis (Sonny) L. Cobb, Jr.; and sister, Kathleen Dryden.
Survivors include her husband; daughter, Sharon Ziriak of Nacogdoches, Texas; son, David Ramsey and wife Patricia of Delaware, Ohio; daughter, Karen Zabel and husband Matthew of Krum, Texas; and daughter, Jann Shinn and husband Jeffrey of Overland Park, Kan.; sisters, Marilyn Locke of Lakeland, Fla., Nancy Sword of Indianapolis, Ind., Arletta Spencer of Round Rock, Texas; and brother, Larry Cobb of Peebles, Ohio.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 A.M., Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at the First United Pentecostal Family Church of Cleburne, 1000 Woodard Ave., Cleburne, TX 76033. Reverend DeWaun Ashley and Bishop F.L. Ashley will officiate.
Burial will follow at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery in Dallas.
Donations in her memory may be made online to the National Kidney Foundation kidney.org/donation or the American Heart Association donate.heart.org.
Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Funeral Home will handle the arrangements.