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Fern Shirley Long, 89

Fern Shirley Long of Blair died Sunday, March 1, 2015, one day short of her 90th birthday.

There will be no services because the deceased requested that her body be donated to science.

She was born March 2, 1925, to William and Anne Eberline, in Sioux City, Iowa, the youngest of six children. At an early age, her family moved to Glen Ellen, Ill., where her father was a government meat inspector during the Depression era.

After graduating high school, she went to Guam, as a civilian worker. While there, she met her future husband, Jesse F. Long. They married in Reno, Nev., on May 9, 1949, and moved to a small dairy farm in Fresno, Calif.

In late 1949, they decided to move to Compton, Calif., to live closer to her family. Shortly after the move, Fern gave birth to her daughter, Juanita Kay; then a son, James Melvin, in 1952.

In 1956, Fern went to work at a plastics factory in Torrance, Calif., where she quickly became a top supervisor for the company.

April of 1962 brought new changes when the family decided to move to Brunswick, a very small farming community. She started work at the local nursing home as an aide, working six or seven days a week, sometimes 12 hours or more each day.

In May of 1969 came another move, this time to O'Neill, where she worked as an office manager for several car dealerships, then an auto parts store.

After Jesse's passing in 1986, Fern moved to Omaha to be closer to her daughter's growing family. She worked at Miracle Hills Coffee Shop for several years, before moving to Blair in the fall of 1990.

She was quickly hired on at Crowell Nursing Home as a dietary aide. She worked there until she was 82 years old, having to "retire" due to health issues.

She is survived by her daughter, Juanita Gray of Blair; three granddaughters: Sherry (Scott) Jantz of Millard, Lucinda (Eric) Broady, of Olathe, Kan., and Kristina (Frank III) Roberts of Blair; five great-grandchildren; and two stepgranddaughters: Machelle (Chris) Burkhard and Laurie Gray of Omaha.

She was preceded in death by both parents, five siblings, her husband, son, son-in-law and two nephews.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~