Vee Ruth Nelson Shanahan, cherished wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and aunt, passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Tarpon Springs, Florida on April 4, 2024. A graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Vee was a teacher for many years, both full-time and as substitute, and held other positions over the years. She especially enjoyed her position as Registrar for the Worcester Art Museum Art School. An English Language and Literature major, Vee was also a writer, contributing poems to magazines and writing many stories based on her family and early life in Chicago. She volunteered on archeological digs in England and translated Latin documents for the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. She painted and encouraged family members to paint, the results of which covered almost every inch of wall in her living room and dining room. Vee was also a talented singer who received awards in high school and college for her performances in musicals, and listening to her singing around the house while growing up was a joy.

Vee was born in Chicago and always thought of herself as a Chicago girl, even after her family moved to Cerro Gordo, Illinois. She met Patrick Shanahan while working a summer at Cedar Point. They fell for each other immediately and when they went back to their respective colleges, they wrote love letters daily and sometimes twice a day. They married in August, 1953 in Clyde, Ohio, and had nine children. They raised their family in the Worcester, Massachusetts area, but had the courage to move the whole family to live in England for a year. They enjoyed that so much they spent three more years there.

When the Internet era began, Vee was among the first adopters of email and internet use, encouraging her children to get email to better keep in touch. Vee was one of the first to join an online writers’ group and take online writing classes. Throughout her seventies and eighties she continued to take online classes such as non-fiction writing, history, and philosophy. At 91 she took a Master Class in economics and another that taught the curriculum for the first year of law school.

Vee read widely and voraciously. Even at the age of 92 she read two different translations of the Iliad so she could compare them. Kind, empathetic, and intelligent, she never stopped learning new things. She used online games and language study to keep her mind sharp, studying Italian, Spanish, and Old Norse. She was a total boss with technology, using her smartphone, laptop, desktop, and Kindle better than many young people. Her love for and pride in her children and grandchildren shone through in every interaction. She often spoke of how lucky she was to have lived such a life with such a husband and family.

Preceded in death by her beloved husband of nearly 60 years, Dr. Patrick Shanahan, her parents Norman Nelson and Vercele Foster Nelson, sisters Georgia Squires and Jackie Erikson, brother Robert Nelson, grandson Patrick E. Shanahan, and daughters-in-law Jeanne Hagstrom Shanahan and Shana Strom Shanahan, she is survived by children Michael, Matthew (Suzanne), Mary (Jeffrey) Magner, Patrick (Karol), David, Catherine (Kermit) Whitfield, Jack (Laura), James, and Peter (Jennifer); her brother Buzz (Garda) Nelson and her brother-in-law Michael (Connie) Shanahan; fourteen grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and twelve nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Dobies Funeral Home in Tarpon Springs, Florida on April 21, 2024 from 3pm to 4pm. Friends may, if they wish, contribute to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in lieu of flowers. Online condolences may be made at www.dobiesfuneralhome.com.