Shirley Margaret MACKEEN

DOE, Shirley Margaret Shirley Margaret Doe, 83, Canadian emigre, homemaker, and longtime resident of Mississippi and Texas, died quietly from stroke complications in Conroe, Texas, on March 20, 2009 - the first day of spring. Born in Toronto on April Fools' Day, 1925, to Margaret Watson MacKeen and Harold DeForest MacKeen, she was a devoted daughter, sister, and niece. As a young girl, she developed an intense love of outdoor recreation including skiing and swimming and became a dedicated and generous letter writer. In 1945, Shirley moved with the MacKeen family to Calgary, but maintained strong ties to her family in Eastern Canada. In the summer of 1949, she traveled across Canada to be with her ailing uncle, James Watson, beginning a lifetime of long-distance family outreach. During her early twenties, Shirley was an avid downhill skier in the Canadian Rockies, won the title of Miss Calgary, and was crowned Queen of the 1950 Banff Winter Carnival. She met and married husband Robert Eldon "Bob" Doe, and started a family with two energetic boys. In 1954, Bob's work as a geophysicist brought the family to Houston, where in 1957 a third son was born. In 1960, the family moved to La Mirada, California, returning to Houston in 1966. As her boys grew older, she became a volunteer with the Presbyterian Church, caring for the out-of-town families of patients at Houston Medical Center. Throughout this time, Shirley was her family's Canadian ambassador, traveling north for births, weddings, and funerals. In 1982, Shirley and Bob retired to the Gulf Coast town of Pass Christian, Mississippi. They spent the next twenty-three years there, teaching their grandson, Chris, to fish and sail, volunteering for the local Garden Club; initiating a community Meals-on-Wheels program, helping to establish Pass Christian as a "Tree City USA", and providing potluck meals and spiced pecans to congregants at the Pineville Presbyterian Church. After Bob's death in early 2005, hurricane Katrina flooded her home, and she moved to a retirement complex in The Woodlands, Texas. She immersed herself in the social fabric of this new community, joining a local Methodist church and volunteering to teach literacy to children at a nearby elementary school. Friends and extended family remember Shirley as a compassionate, self-sacrificing soul with a great sense of humor and tremendous courage, who truly cared for everyone she met. In addition to her parents and husband Bob, Shirley was predeceased by her beloved son Harold "Harry" Doe. She is survived by son Thomas Doe and daughter-in-law Kay Doe of Honoka'a, Hawaii; son Richard Doe of Los Gatos, California; grandson Christopher Doe of Grand Prairie, Texas; sister Helen Egleston of North Vancouver, British Columbia; brother James MacKeen and sister Nancy MacKeen of Calgary, Alberta; and cousins Caroline Lester and Tom Watson and cousin-in-law Bruce Robertson of Toronto, Ontario. She is also survived by nieces Lynda Blackstock and Helen Huffman of British Columbia, Heather Williams of Alberta, and Karen Hesterman of Bermuda; nephews Bruce MacKeen and Jim Egleston of Alberta; grandnieces Heather Egleston, Megan Huffman, and Lisa Blackstock; and grandnephews Chris Egleston, Michael Huffman, and Richard Egleston. Family and friends will gather to celebrate her life from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 5, 2009, at the Lake Chaparral Recreation Center, 225 Lake Chaparral Drive S.E., Calgary, Alberta, T2X 2B5, to be followed by a drive to the mountains on Saturday. The family requests donations in lieu of flowers are sent to Sally K. Ride Elementary School Library Fund, 4920 W. Panther Creek Dr., The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 77381. Published in the Calgary Herald on 3/27/2009