Shirley Graf, 78

Shirley Ann Graf (Wolf), 78, of Wauseon, Ohio left our world to be with the Lord Saturday July 12, 2014 at the Defiance Area Inpatient Hospice Center in Defiance, Ohio. She passed peacefully in the night after a short, courageous battle with cancer.

On April 3, 1936, God sent an angel named Shirley Ann Wolf to her parents Frederick Henry Jacob Wolf and Edna Maude (Snow) Wolf. She grew up at the farm on Tedrow-Ottokee Road at the former Stage Coach Inn. She attended Wauseon High School where she was a cheerleader for the basketball team. It was there that she met her true love and soul mate, Lloyd Graf, who was a starting guard on Mike Sapp’s 1953 Wauseon Indian basketball team. After graduation, she and Lloyd married on June 26, 1955. Shirley was a carhop at Goon’s Drive-up and Lloyd a service attendant at Bob’s Sinclair. After giving birth to 3 boys, Shirley settled in at home where she became the World’s Best Stay Home Mom….and later the World’s Best Stay Home Grandma. Both Lloyd and Shirley took on various jobs over the course of their career where they met and made an impact on hundreds of friends in the Wauseon Area. Upon their retirement in 2002, they spent Shirley’s remaining 12 years where they had spent the first 47 years…on West Elm Street. You could find her on most non-snowy evenings relaxing in her and Lloyd’s gazebo in the back yard, bragging and reminiscing about their kids and grandkids. Shirley knows and loves the Lord. She and Lloyd are members at Hope Christian Fellowship in Wauseon, where they helped build and maintain the church. After her brief battle with cancer, the Lord decided it was time to stop her pain and bring this angel back home, as her work here was complete. She is survived by her devoted, loving husband of 59 years, Lloyd, her oldest son Steven “Lou” (Judy) of Adrian Michigan, her middle son Neal (Carolyn) of Ft. Worth Texas, and her youngest son, Bart (Christy) of Plantation, Florida. She also has 4 grandsons: Wade, Brett, Corey and Frankie and one great-granddaughter, Jayne. Lloyd, as well as all the sons and grandsons were able to prayerfully say their good-byes to our “Shirls” on the day of her death. She is also survived by her brother, Richard Wolf of Wauseon, and her sister Bonnie Wolf (Lammon) Shaw of Defiance. Shirley is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews, as well as several brother and sisters-in-law. She was preceded in death by both parents, her sisters Ruth and Ivabelle Mason, as well as her brothers, Chuck Mason, Chester and Fred Wolf.

After a private, family and extended-family graveside burial at Wauseon Union Cemetery on Tuesday morning July 15th, the Graf’s will receive friends and family that afternoon/evening from 4 to 7 at the Hope Christian Fellowship Church, 15490 US Hwy. 20A, one half mile west of St. Rt. 108. A memorial service to celebrate the life and times of Shirley will immediately follow the reception at 7:00p.m. at the church. Services will be conducted by Pastor Donna Stutzman as well as Edgar-Grisier Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any gifts of love and remembrance be made to The Hope Christian Fellowship Church of Wauseon.