Shirley Mae Schick passed away Friday, May 4th, 2018 at age 92.
She was born in Battle Creek to Clyde and Jessie (Kendall) Schick on March 3, 1926, the second of six siblings.
She attended country schools in the Marshall area and Marshall High School, leaving in the 10th grade to assist operating the family farm in Fredonia Township. She specialized in raising and training Hackney ponies, obtained her private pilot’s license and became skilled in the many aspects of general farming.
In 1969, Shirley sold her Michigan farm and became an orchardist in Dryden, Washington, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. There with her life partner, Margret Kellogg, she produced Red and Yellow Delicious apples and D’Anjou pears. Shirley returned to Michigan in 1998, retiring to a 12-acre estate near Decatur in Cass County. Failing health required that Shirley be closer to relatives and in 2014 took up residence at Bickford Cottage in Battle Creek. Her final months were under the skilled and loving care at Miller Care Home of Marshall.
Shirley is survived by sisters Jeanette Groth and Lois Munn and brother Philip Schick, all of Battle Creek, and twenty nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her parents, sisters Betty Katz (2006) and JoAnn Stiner (2014), niece Krystal Heitman (2006), nephew Barry Katz (2014), and partner Margret Kellogg (2015)
Private graveside services at West Eckford Cemetery will be held at a date to be determined.