Shirley Stasko

Shirley (Coe) Stasko was born October 11, 1935 in Santa Ana, California, the second child of Sarah and Fred Coe. She spent her early years in Santa Ana where she loved swimming at Long Beach with her older sister Martha. Her parents divorced when she was small; in the 1940's, she moved with her mother, sister and stepfather Arthur Croissant to a ranch 8 miles east of Willows, California, where her younger sister Elizabeth was born.

Shirley attended Sycamore Elementary School in Willows and later Willows High School, where she was active in the drama club, appearing in several plays. Gifted with a beautiful singing voice, she was a soloist in the church choir. After high school graduation in 1952, Shirley briefly attended Chico State; she then moved to San Francisco where she continued to perform in theater while working as a switchboard operator. She adored living in vibrant 1950s San Francisco and had many stories to tell about her connections with the artists, writers and actors of the Beat era. It was there that she met the father of her first two children, Ed Mitchell, a jazz drummer. She later had two children with Jesse James Hawkins, a painter and musician. In 1965 she married Daniel Stasko, the son of longtime family friends; their 10-year marriage produced a daughter, Diana.

In the 1970s, Shirley developed an interest in drawing and painting and in 1980, graduated with a B.A. in interior design from California College of Arts and Crafts. Her design career took her to Denver, Colorado and Lansing Michigan, where she designed facilities for many companies and taught interior design at a community college. Upon her retirement in 1992, she returned to California's Central Valley, where she lived in Sacramento for over 10 years before moving to Alameda to be near her daughter Diana.

Shirley was brilliant, witty, and enthusiastic and ahead of her time in many ways. Despite a progressive neuromuscular disease which eventually required the use of a wheelchair, she continued to travel and explore the world; as her disease progressed, she redesigned her apartment to make it more accessible. One of her favorite mottoes was "don't complain"; she used humor to cope with her physical difficulties. She was a voracious reader, fond of Agatha Christie, British history, nonfiction, and science fiction. A naturally talented musician with a beautiful singing voice, her wide-ranging music collection included classical, jazz, country, rock, folk, and global music. She was a skilled cook who enjoyed cooking and eating foods from around the world. Her love of music, art, theater and food made her life and the lives of those around her richer. Shirley seemed to know a little bit about almost everything and would surprise you with obscure facts about unexpected topics; her impressive vocabulary made her an unbeatable Scrabble player.

Shirley was blessed later in life to reconnect with the four children she placed for adoption in her early years (Jess, Ed, David and Robin). She treasured the relationships they built together.

After a long illness, Shirley passed away peacefully surrounded by family on January 22, 2023. She was predeceased by her son David (Julian) Hawkins and older sister Martha Coe. She is survived by sons Jess Mitchell and Ed "Skip" Mitchell Jr., daughters Robin Hawkins and Diana Stasko, sister Elizabeth Bartell, niece Michelle Butcher, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.