Shirley J. Cordova's Obituary
Shirley June Oatsvall was born on May 28th, 1934 in Detroit, MI, the first of two children of Addie and Guy Oatsvall. She grew up and went to school in Detroit, including Macomb County Community College. She also attended only one semester at Graceland College in Lamoni, IA due to financial constraints. She started her music training with piano lessons in her pre-teen years and quickly became an accomplished pianist and organist. She played for her Community of Christ congregation and was the organist for the church’s presentation of Handel’s Messiah as a teenager. Her two sons, Kenneth Shaw and Timothy Shaw were also born in Detroit. She commenced her career as a piano teacher while there, as well.In 1969 she and her boys left Detroit for Southern California, to live near her brother, Gary Oatsvall, arriving in El Cajon on the day Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. The family anticipated a relatively short stay in California, however, when her boys were able to go swimming on Christmas Day, they convinced her to stay in El Cajon rather than returning to the snow and cold of Detroit. She worked at several jobs and started school at Grossmont College. She continued her schooling at San Diego State University receiving a BA degree in 1973 and then added a teaching credential a year later. She suffered headaches starting in her teen years and their continuation caused her to shorten her teaching career to a few years. She continued her piano teaching in the San Diego area well into her 60’s.One of her jobs was to play the organ and piano for church services at the Recruit Training Command (Navy Boot Camp), a job she held for 24 years. During those years she brought her music ministry to in excess of 100,000 young men, many away from home for the first time in their lives. They often would leave little notes on the organ asking her to play their favorite hymns sometime during the service. The mother of one recruit wrote about her in an article for Catholic Digest in 1990. She received one of the very few Certificates of Appreciation given to a civilian signed by the Navy Chief of Chaplains for her efforts ministering to the recruits. The two hymns we will sing today were the favorites of the recruits Sunday after Sunday. She also would play the organ for weddings at various Navy facilities, occasionally playing for as many as five weddings on a Saturday.On Thanksgiving Eve, 1970, she reluctantly accepted a blind date invitation for dinner with Lieutenant Commander Richard Cordova at the home of one of her school mates and wife of a shipmate of Richard’s onboard USS Snook. They made it through dinner and went out several times before Richard deployed in January for over six months in the Western Pacific. Upon his return, their courtship continued and resulted in a full military wedding on July 29th, 1973. Their family now consisted of five children, Ken, Tim, and Richard, Jr., Stephen, and Sally Cordova. Shirley and Richard were very fortunate in that Richard was able to spend the rest of his Navy career in San Diego with only one long and two short additional deployments.Shirley and Richard loved to travel and took over ten cruises, including two of 70 days duration around the Pacific Rim. They also took car trips to the Midwest and East Coast almost every year to attend church functions and visit relatives and friends. Shirley loved to visit with relatives in the Paris, TN area where she had many cousins, aunts, and uncles.Shirley was a lifelong member of Community of Christ and with her support and personal ministry, Richard also joined the church in 1975. Shirley held music ministry positions in the El Cajon Congregation and District/Mission Center until her dementia adversely affected her ability of play the piano and organ. She was ordained and Elder in 1992 and served as Pastor of the El Cajon Congregation from 1995 through 2000, the longest continuous period for a self-sustaining minister in the congregation’s 60+ year history. She was ordained an Evangelist in 2001 and served in this capacity until superannuation in 2014.She is survived by her husband, Richard; children, Ken, Tim (Mary), Richard (Kathi), Stephen, and Sally (Gerri Kinyon); grandchildren Rebecca McPherson, Andrea Shaw, and Steven Shaw; four great-grandchildren; and brother Gary Oatsvall (Kathleen).Shirley was a loving and compassionate wife, mother, friend, and minister of Jesus Christ. She will be missed by all.A Memorial Service Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, 10 October, 2:00 PM at Community of Christ, El Cajon Congregation, 115 Cajon View Dr., El Cajon CA. Easiest way, take I-8 east to the Magnolia Ave. exit in El Cajon. Exit south and go all the way to the end of Magnolia. Cross Chase Ave. and go to end of street up the hill and turn left. Parking lots on the right. (It looks as if you are going up the hill to a dead end). Phone: 442-1516. There will be a reception after the service.In lieu of flowers, consider contributions to Outreach International or Graceland University, Music Department.
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