Shirley Ann (Spencer) Green

Shirley Ann Spencer was born in January 1930 into a family of dryland wheat farmers in the tiny town of Dix, Nebraska, the youngest of three girls. At age 19, after two years of college in Greely, Colorado, Shirley headed to California to make a bigger life for herself. Staying with her sister in Santa Monica, Shirley got a job and also met the boy next door. She and William Spickard were married in 1950 and soon started a family. After following her husband’s aerospace career from Southern California to the San Francisco Bay Area and back, they settled in Huntington Beach. After 18 years, Shirley divorced William, and although the marriage had been a poor match, she gained three resilient children.

Shirley went back to college, and with training as a medical assistant, began working for an OBGYN. She loved working with the young mothers and stayed for over 20 years, eventually helping the children of her first patients have their own children. Shirley volunteered as a naturalist interpreter in the Back Bay Nature Preserve in Newport Beach, leading field trips for children.

In December 1971 she married R. Gail Green, who was also recently divorced with three children of his own. When Shirley and Gail started planning for their retirement, they discovered Cambria-by-the-Sea, on the beautiful Central Coast of California, and began investing in real estate there.

As avid birders, Shirley and Gail budgeted for an international trip every year, and managed to take trips to every continent on the globe, recording thousands of species of birds, as well as other wildlife.

About the time they finally retired to Cambria, elephant seals started showing up on the beach a few miles north, and Shirley and Gail were among the first of the locals to volunteer to be docents to educate the hordes of tourists about the elephant seals now hauling out on the beach.

Shirley was a motive force, and arriving in Cambria she was a founding member of the Cambria Newcomers Club (now the Cambria Neighbors Club) which created a birding group, a walking group, a bridge group, a book club group and others and in the process developed a huge circle of friends. Over 50 of them came to her 80th Birthday celebration at the Cambria Pines Lodge in 2010. Shirley and Gail thoroughly relished their three decades in Cambria.

Gail slipped into dementia, and passed away in April 2018. Shirley continued to enjoy her beloved Cambria for another five years, but in September, 2023 she moved to an assisted community in Reno to be near her daughter.

After a wonderful holiday season this past December with travel to see her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, she had a bout with a virus. After a 19-day stay in the hospital in January, she consciously chose to enter hospice. After a week of hospice care, she passed away peacefully on February 5, 2025 with her daughter and son-in-law at her bedside.

Shirley Spencer Green is survived by son Steve Spickard (Lynne), daughter Amy Bess (Steve Bess), son Clay Spickard, grandsons Greg Spickard and Erik Spickard (Grace Harvey), great grandsons Archer and Leo, and step-children Ian MacInnes-Green (Kris Page), Stacia Green (Martha Dale), and Chris Green (Julie), and their children and grandchildren, as well as beloved nephews and nieces.

A private Celebration of Life will be scheduled for a future date.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve or to a charity of your choice.