Memorial
Shirley Ann Martin went to be with her Lord on Monday, June 22, 2015 while at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Her service will be held at 1:00pm Monday, June 29, 2015 at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, located at 6621 C Avenue NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Pastor Damian Epps will officiate. Family will receive guests beginning at noon on Monday at Mt. Zion. Burial will follow at Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery.
She leaves to cherish her memory: her children Sarah Ann Martin, Artrice Martin, Shirley Charrisse Cox , Tyrone Martin, and Lisa Coleman; her siblings Mildred (Joe) Hunt and Anthony (Reverend Leslie) Davis; a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents Eugene and Gladys Davis; siblings Ethel (Baby Jean), Mary Lee, Josephine, Gladys Ruth (Bobby), Eugene (Jr.) and Charles; daughters Debora Ann Simmons and Tracy Lynn Walker.
Shirley was born October 26, 1942 in Opelika, Alabama. She was the daughter of Eugene and Gladys Stinson Davis. Shirley moved to Chicago with her family at a young age. She married Otris Martin in 1959 and raised all seven of her children in Chicago while working as a Nurse’s Aid at Mt. Sinai Medical Center.
She moved to Iowa in 1980 where she worked in the home health care field. Shirley later graduated from Kirkwood Community College as a non-traditional student with an associate’s degree in Applied Science. Upon graduation, she began working as a Medical Records Technician at Mercy Hospital. However, Shirley spent only a few years in this field before retiring early to raise two of her grandchildren shortly after the death of their mother.
Shirley was a longtime member of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church where she sang in the choir, worked in the kitchen ministry and was also instrumental in implementing the Christmas Tree Gift Ministry for children. One of the last contributions she made to the church was helping to start a breakfast program to feed congregants before the morning service.
Later in life she went to live with her daughter Sarah Martin in Flossmoor, Illinois who cared for her for several years. She returned to Cedar Rapids a short time ago.
Her passion was caring for others, whether that meant making sure people always had a meal to eat or a place to lay their head at night. She was an enterprising Christian woman who sold homemade and wholesale treats to folks in her Chicago neighborhood of Altgeld Gardens and cooked food for others to purchase to help make ends meet. Shirley was a woman of many entrepreneurial pursuits.
Shirley Ann Martin was a loving mother, grandmother and friend who will be missed by all who knew her.