Shirley Jean Christensen Jenkins was born January 22, 1934, in Atlantic Iowa to parents GH (Don) Christensen and Anna M Christensen. She graduated from Atlantic High School in 1952 and Iowa Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in 1955. She married Vernon Jenkins on November 18, 1956, and lived in the Des Moines area for 41 years. They had 4 daughters, Julia Beth, Lori Jenkins, Susan Jenkins and Katherine (Jenkins) Benjamin. She had three grandchildren, Ryan Alliss, Holly (Alliss) Gant (William Gant), and Audra Dorrian (Ray Victorino). She had 4 great-grandchildren, William Gant, Weslely Gant, Nora Victorino, and Nova Victorino. Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, sister Dorothy Craney, brother Harold Christensen, infant daughter Julia, and husband Vernon.

Shirley and Vernon were members of Union Park Baptist Church in Des Moines for 37 years and most recently attenders at Calvary Baptist Church after moving to Cedar Rapids.

Shirley worked at Iowa Methodist Hospital for 3 years after graduation, then served her family and returned to work as a nurse after 20 years. She will be remembered for loving her family well, her faith, and her grace through the years of her husband's decline with dementia, the pandemic, and her own health challenges in her later years. Through the pandemic and her last years at the Rehabilitation Center of Lisbon she actively kept up with friends and family and world events with the use of her ipad and smartphone. She died November 13, 2023, just short of her 90th birthday.

Memorial services are pending.