Shirley Brennan

Shirley McWeeny Krause Brennan, age 91 of Kerrville, Texas, passed away Wednesday, April 8, 2020. She was born in South Bend, Indiana, on June 10, 1928, to James L. McWeeny and Chantal Archambeault. James was the son of former Notre Dame football coach, James McWeeny. Chantal was a member of the Archambeault family whose Quebecois ancestry has been traced back to 17th century France. After a divorce, Chantal married Albert D. Krause, who adopted Shirley in Laporte County, Indiana.\r\n \r\nShirley attended schools in Laporte and Gary, Indiana and graduated from Mishawaka, Indiana High School. She greatly enjoyed summers at Grandpa Krause's farm in Michigan. She went to St. Mary's college, Notre Dame, Indiana, graduating in 1950 with a major in history and minor in English. Shirley was president of the club for local girls enrolled at St. Mary's. She was gregarious, with a big blue-eyed smile and a willingness to converse at length. She first met her future husband Dan Brennan at a mixer for St. Mary's girls and Notre Dame students.\r\n \r\nShirley taught in a Chicago suburb for two years and then returned to South Bend to teach at Holy Cross School. During the summers, she enrolled for graduate courses at Notre Dame.\r\n \r\nShirley and Dan were married on a snowy, icy morning of January 22, 1955 in St. Joseph's Church, Mishawaka Indiana. They immediately moved to Tucson, Arizona, where Dan enrolled as a graduate student of geology at the University of Arizona. It was there that their first two daughters were born, Elise on Halloween 1955 and Maura in February of 1957. They had the experience of living in a Quonset hut in the University's Vetville: Polo Village.\r\n \r\nWhen Dan started to work for Shell Oil Co., they first moved to Billings, Montana, then transferred to Oklahoma City, OK, to Houston and back to OKC. Their third daughter, Sheila was born during their second stay in OKC. Next to Tulsa, OK, thence to Lafayette, LA, where Jeanne Louise was born and baptized with a Cajun pronunciation of her name. They were transferred back to Tulsa, then to Albuquerque, NM and then to Roswell, NM. Another transfer took them to Wichita, KS where Matthew, Margaret, and Caroline were born. Those were head-spinning times.\r\n \r\nDuring all those years, Shirley adapted to the many changes of circumstances, adjusting to different homes, keeping up the homes, sewing outfits for her girls, making custom draperies. They survived several boom and bust cycles in the oil fields. \r\n \r\nWhen Dan accepted a professor job in Cortland, NY, they moved there and stayed for ten years. During the summers of those years, while Dan was off doing geology in the wilds of the North, Shirley managed the children, kept house. One summer she managed the remodeling of the Kitchen. Another year Dan came home and found her re-roofing the garage by herself. She found time to do substitute teaching, especially for special needs children and to sell real estate. In her spare time, she earned a master's degree in English from Cortland State College\r\n \r\nAfter ten years in the cold wet, rainy, snowy regions of upstate New York, they returned to Texas and to the oil patch in Amarillo. Then to Midland. There Shirley sold real estate and taught English at Midland College. Their final move in the oil patch was back to Edmond, a suburb of OKC. \r\n \r\nThence to Phoenix AZ for a few years. Finally back to Texas, to Kerrville. They had survived several boom and bust cycles in the oil fields. In Phoenix and later in Kerrville, she went back to her true passion: art. Using acrylics and pastels, she created many wonderful images. She was a member of the Ingram Garden club and was for a time one of the Red Hat Ladies.\r\n \r\nShirley is survived by her husband, Dan, by six daughters, Elise Brennan of Fresno, CA, Maura Valentine, of Van Nuys, CA, Sheila Brennan of Vallejo, CA, Jeanne Brennan Carballo, of Houston, TX, Margaret Maldonado of San Antonio, TX, and Caroline Brennan of Fort Collins, CO and by son, Matthew Brennan of El Paso, TX.\r\n \r\nShirley was a strong, creative, outgoing, and loving mother and wife, capable of meeting the challenges of all those days. She will be greatly missed.\r\n\r\nThe family has chosen private services out of an abundance of caution concerning the Covid-19 virus.\r\n\r\nIn lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.