Shirley Louise Ricker, age 71, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at Froedtert South St. Catherine\u2019s Campus with her family by her side.<\/p>\n
Shirley was born on April 10, 1947 to Lester and Lucille Ricker in Kenosha.\u00a0\u00a0From a young age Shirley knew that she would one day become a teacher.\u00a0\u00a0She graduated from St. Joseph High School and in fact did go to Union Grove Teachers\u2019 College. She graduated at the age of 20 and began her teaching career.\u00a0 In 1972 she earned her bachelors\u2019 degree from Carthage College.\u00a0\u00a0She followed with a masters\u2019 degree from Cardinal Stritch College in 1993. After 42 years and over 1,200 students, St. Mary\u2019s school was the one and only place that was blessed with Shirley\u2019s teaching abilities.\u00a0Shirley taught many different grade levels, focusing on math, reading and religious education. She also opened St. Mary\u2019s first computer lab.\u00a0\u00a0She was a teacher who taught with her mind but even more so, taught with her heart.\u00a0\u00a0She held the belief that any child (and adult for that matter) could learn.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cUse it or lose it\u201d was a familiar phrase one would hear. Shirley followed in her father\u2019s footsteps and became a life-long Sears employee, working part time in the business office for over 40 years until the store\u2019s closing this past year.<\/p>\n
As an avid reader, Shirley attended a woman\u2019s book club for several years.\u00a0\u00a0She was also an avid bowler, bowling in a league for many years. Shirley enjoyed traveling to Door County with family every year.\u00a0\u00a0Outside of teaching, Shirley was a very involved aunt, sister, niece and friend.\u00a0\u00a0Her family was very important to her, as was her lifelong walk with God.\u00a0She walked the walk of Jesus in her life.<\/p>\n
Shirley was a proud breast cancer survivor, having beat the disease in 2006.\u00a0\u00a0She could often be seen with breast cancer survivor apparel, blankets and other items.\u00a0\u00a0Shirley was also an animal lover, having several special dogs over the years including Annie, a small Schnauzer, and Alaskan Huskies Nikita and Alaska.\u00a0\u00a0She will be overjoyed to see them in heaven.\u00a0\u00a0Since retiring Shirley didn\u2019t stay away from teaching as she tutored several special kids.<\/p>\n
Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, Lester Ricker, Lucille Ricker and a special friend Scot Miller. \u00a0She is survived by a sister Roxanne (Dave) Cieszynski of Milton, WI, a brother Fred (Kathy) Ricker of Kenosha, an uncle, Marvin Ricker and an aunt, Betty MacLaurin. She is also survived by\u00a0nieces, Joy (Craig) Torpy and Amy Vincent, nephews, Nick Albertson, Brent (Louisa) Ricker and Jay Ricker, great nieces Jordan Richardson and Faith Vincent and great nephews Austin Richardson and Blake Vincent along with many cherished friends.<\/p>\n
If Shirley were here today she would encourage everyone to take her death as an opportunity to show love to others.\u00a0\u00a0She would probably say \u201cwell you have to go on after I am gone.\u00a0\u00a0Of course, you do, there are many others that need you.\u00a0\u00a0God has a plan for you and you need to look to Him for it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Easier said than done, Shirley.\u00a0You have touched so very many people and your kind of touch leaves a person only wanting more.\u00a0\u00a0We will never be the same without you here, but we can at least crack a sassy comment once in a while in your honor while playing a great song from Barry Manilow.\u00a0\u00a0We will always Love you Miss Ricker, Shirl, Sam, Shirley Louise Ricker!<\/p>\n
Shirley\u2019s family would \u00a0like to express sincere gratitude to P.A. Joshua Stacy, the hospitalists and ICU staff at Froedtert South-St. Catherine\u2019s for their compassionate care of Shirley.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Funeral Services honoring Shirley\u2019s life will be held on Thursday, May 17, 2018. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church, 7400 39th Ave. Relatives and friends are asked to meet at the church for Mass. Interment will follow in St. James Cemetery.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shirley Louise Ricker, age 71, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at Froedtert South St. Catherine\u2019s Campus with her family by her side. Shirley was born on April 10, 1947 to Lester and Lucille Ricker in Kenosha.\u00a0\u00a0From a young age Shirley knew that<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":13902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"service-location":[],"class_list":["post-13901","obituary","type-obituary","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/obituary\/13901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/obituary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/obituary"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"service-location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenoshafuneralhome.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service-location?post=13901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Informaci\u00f3n del servicio<\/h3>\n