Shirley Anne Wolvington didn’t mind being called a “housewife,” but her idea of that went well beyond carpooling.
She taught her kids how to fish and appreciate opera. She went skiing and hiking with them and sewed for them.
Also, she made jewelry, painted with watercolors and was active in the League of Women Voters.
Wolvington died Sept. 21 at a care facility in Littleton. She was 81. She had lived in Wheat Ridge and Golden for years.
Wolvington was “opinionated” on almost everything, said her daughter, Gloria Hurdle of Arlington, Va., and kept up on everything.
When Wolvington had an argument with her husband, Winston, they would settle things with a nickel bet. The practice continues in the family today.
Nickels figured into other things. Wolvington would promote discipline by rewarding her kids with a nickel for doing the dishes, two nickels for putting away their bikes and five nickels for having good posture all day. But there was a nickel fine for not making their bed.
Wolvington was devoted to her family. For years, she made matching Christmas dresses – in different colors – for her daughters, Hurdle and Judy Snell Konegni of Littleton.
“She was still doing that when we were in our 30s,” said Hurdle, laughing. “We told her that was long enough.”
Wolvington was constantly teaching her children. She would read a couple of chapters of a book to them when they came home for lunch and would explain opera stories to them.
Wolvington climbed all the nontechnical fourteeners in Colorado, and she and her husband helped construct and maintain the Colorado Trail. They skied almost every weekend and square-danced at least once a week.
“She was full of energy and fun to be around,” Hurdle said.
Shirley Anne Vail was born July 4, 1924, in Denver. She was named for Anne Shirley, the character in the book “Anne of Green Gables.” The family didn’t know why Vail’s mother reversed the names.
Her grandfather was Charles D. Vail, for whom Vail Pass was named.
She graduated from East High School and earned a degree in economics from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She married Winston Wolvington, whom she met when they went to Smiley Junior High School, on Sept. 9, 1944. He was a lawyer who later became a district judge in Gilpin and Jefferson counties. He died in January.
In addition to her daughters, she is survived by her sons, Glenn Wolvington of Loveland and Don Wolvington of Santa Fe; 11 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
