Shirley Anne Broughton

Broughton, Shirley A., Beloved, Wonderful Mother and Precious Grandmother, of Xenia, passed into Heaven on May 25, 2013.

She is survived by her daughter Janet Broughton Fox and son-in-law Vincent of Ridgeway, SC, son Gary Broughton and daughter in law Alejandra of Riverside, OH and son James Broughton of Brunswick, GA; grandchildren: Bryan Fox, Melissa Magninat, and Megan Black.

Shirley Anne Pittman Broughton was 70 when she passed from this earthly life and into the arms of her Savior in the early morning hours of May 25, 2013.

Shirley was the second child of Soloman and Lucille Pittman born on January 6, 1943 in Richmond, Ky.

Her elder brother is Kenneth Merle of Camden, Oh.

She grew up mostly in Dayton but also spent much time with her family in Richmond and Berea, Ky.

She was a 1961 graduate of Stivers High School in Dayton.

She married James Broughton in January 1962 and they were married for 24 years.

Shirley was our Mom.

Janet, her eldest, that's me, was born in 1962
Gary followed in 1966
James Jr. (Jamie) in 1970

Mom asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior in 1972 and was baptized.

These are her formal statistics, but I'd like to tell you about her life and loves.

She was an excellent mother, loving and caring, merciful and always supportive.

She was a stay-at-home Mom most of our growing up years.

Here are just a few of the things we remember as we give glory to God for her:

She always strived to make our birthdays special, which is something I continued with my own children.

For instance, for my 18th birthday, she was finishing my favorite cake by icing the sides smooth. And as she was turning the cake around, the plate was beginning to move toward the edge of the counter. When it tipped over the edge, she went to stop it with her hand and put her fist into the side of it. I was sitting with my Grandad at the dining table and we held our breath so as not to laugh. She was initially devastated because she thought it was ruined. But after some careful fill in work with icing, it was almost good as new. Consequently, I will never forget my 18th birthday!

It was such a comfort to us that Gary was always close by for Mom especially when her health began to deteriorate. Gary loved her very much and in addition to being mother and son, they were the best of friends.

Mom was always teaching us how to do something. Jamie remembers as a boy Mom teaching him to fly a kite. She was running backwards in the backyard to get the kite up into the air and tripped and fell over the concrete lid to the septic tank. She broke her arm. While the outcome was not pleasant, Jamie said it meant a lot to him that she was willing to spend this time with him.

Jamie has had some difficult times and while Mom was in the hospital, he told me that he had overcome those difficulties and she knew it. It was important to him that she saw the change in him.

Mom loved dogs. At different times, she had Frankie and Pepper, Ms. Edie and Chica. They gave her so much comfort and companionship.

She was a voracious reader, often coming back from the library with a stack of books that she would promptly devour and then go back for more.
She read the newspaper every day and always did the crossword puzzle, keeping her mind sharp.

Mom loved to garden everything from flowers to vegetables and herbs. I remember as a little girl watching her plant flower seeds in front of the house and when I asked what they were called, she said "Four O'clocks."
I thought this was a strange name for flowers, but if my Mom liked them, so did I. I have some in my own garden to this day.

Growing up, we always had her fresh canned and frozen vegetables on the dinner table as well as homemade things like: relishes, beets, banana peppers, and pickles.

All three of us agree our favorite meal she made was soup beans, fried potatoes and corn bread.

She had this long knife that she used to peel the potatoes and as she cut she would pull the knife toward her hand without cutting herself. We all cut potatoes this way.

She ate fresh lemons or tomatoes with lots of salt, cottage cheese with potato chips, orange candy peanuts, ribbon candy, peeps and peppermint patties and she loved her Pepsi.
She loved butterscotch sundaes and butter pecan ice cream.
These likes never changed.

She was an outstanding typist with amazing speed and accuracy which helped her land a post office position. In this position, she had to learn every street in Dayton to be able to code each piece of mail correctly.
When she was memorizing this information, she developed a method that was subsequently used by others in her department.

Mom was very computer savvy. She had a personal blog, wrote a column for the local newspaper in Spring Valley, as well as sent many entries to Ehow because she knew how to do many things.

She always wanted to stay busy and feel purposeful.

In addition to Dayton, she lived in Ky, Beavercreek, Xenia, Brunswick GA, RockHill and Chester, SC, and Ocala FL. My Vince and I were in the military but she moved more than we did !

She traveled a good bit as well. To CA cross country, Niagra Falls, Great Smokey Mtns, TN, and Germany.

We did a lot of family camping. It was all fun for us, but we didn't realize how much work it was for her to cook our meals and see to her family's comfort. She never complained.

She praised and scolded, held our hands, protected us, guided us with her wisdom, doctored us, cried and laughed with us.

She would often say her children were opinionated and independent (as it should be.)

She loved us and we knew it. What else could we ask for?

God richly blessed us with her and we will miss her all the days of our lives here on earth. But we will see her again. What a reunion that will be!

She was our Mom.