Shirley Rae Carmody Deandrea, 87, passed peacefully on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, at Majestic Senior Living Center in Corvallis, Montana.

Born October 18, 1936, in Gering, Nebraska, Shirley was the third of 5 children born to Bernice and Alvin Carmody. As a child, she was feisty and fierce, competing for the top of the mountain of hay bales to beat her siblings. Her resolve was admired by all who knew her. Shirley DeAndrea was one of a kind! All who truly knew her saw her as strong, faithful, truthful, wise, and loving. She was the person you wanted to talk to when you needed a sounding board. She would listen and then give you honest advice on how to handle it, or let you know you were messing up or taking something too seriously. She also would laugh and rejoice when we shared the good news of life.

Shirley graduated from Gering High School in 1955 and shortly after moved with girlfriends to Denver, Colorado. There, she met her husband, Larry Deandrea. She was known to her step-children as the Best-Mom (Stepmom). She loved her nieces and nephews as much as any could love their own children. She taught all the children in her life that they could do anything they set their minds to doing. If the traditional way did not work, she encouraged all to think outside the box and find another way to succeed. When they had a problem, her advice was to find a solution! Not only in word but in action. She was a living example of grit by how she lived her life.

Shirley and Larry shared a life full of adventures from the coasts of Oregon to the mountains of Colorado with his children that she loved as her own. She was a woman of many talents! She learned to fly a plane in the 60's just to be a copilot if anything were to go wrong. In her lifetime she was a secretary, airport manager, bookkeeper, grocery store manager, and waitress. She could install a satellite dish and pave a street with asphalt. Larry would come up with ideas for businesses, but without Shirley, none would have succeeded. He was the salesman and the talker; Shirley was the manager and the do-er. Shirley was the one that handled the behind-the-scenes business that kept a company and a family going.

In her later years after she lost Larry, Shirley made the decision to move to be near family in Montana, and it is there she lived the last decade of her life. She inspired her family there to love on her dogs (Tinker and Sneaky), take trips to Mexico, try new recipes, cheer on the Broncos, watch Hallmark movies, grow some roses, and tell the stories of a life well-lived. She passed away full of dignity and on her own terms, in a place with a view of the beautiful Bitterroot mountains with her prayer book by her side.

Shirley Deandrea is now in the hands of the Lord, free of pain, enjoying the view of the beaches of Mexico and Rocky Mountains, and all those places in between that she loved so much. She is survived by her beloved dog, Tinker, three step-daughters, six grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild, and so many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews that are too many to count. She will be laid to rest beside Larry in the Grand Lake Cemetery in Grand Lake, Colorado.