Shirley Arlene Tardif, 91
BORN 1930 - DIED 2021
LONG NECK - Shirley Arlene Tardif, who lived most of the past two decades in Long Neck, Del., passed away Dec. 27, 2021, in Okatie, S.C.
Shirley moved to Long Neck in 2002 from the Washington, D.C., area. She had retired in 1990 from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, where she was a grants management specialist for the government's Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program.
She was born Shirley A. Dunahoo on Sept. 1, 1930, in Mason City, Iowa, to Charles Franklin and Stella J. (Evans) Dunahoo. After high school graduation, she moved to Washington, landing a support job at U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters. Also in D.C., she married Air Force sergeant Joseph R. "Ray" Tardif in 1951. They had four children. As a military family, they would uproot periodically, with assignments around the U.S. and in Europe.
Shirley was ever active as an adult. She performed in community theater and served as a Boy Scouts den mother and Girl Scouts and Red Cross volunteer. While living in France, she acted as president of an enlisted men's wives' club and was a chaperone for an American teen club. (One 1965 teen club outing took her to a Beatles concert in Paris.)
Following her government service, she ran her own home products business. In Long Neck, she coordinated clothing drives for needy families and attended nearby Mary Mother of Peace Catholic Church.
Shirley was predeceased by her parents; daughter, Diane Tardif Cantor; son, Roger Tardif; stepfather, Paul Fromhold; sisters, Beverly Folkestad and Kathleen Hinds; and brother, Charles Dunahoo. Ray Tardif, her ex-husband, died in 2018.
She is survived by son, Philip Tardif, of St. Simons Island, Ga.; daughter, Ginette (Daniel) Evans, of Bluffton, S.C.; brother, Gordon Dunahoo, of Albuquerque, N.M.; grandsons, Neil J. Cantor II, of Miami Shores, Fla., and Taylor Evans, of Bluffton; granddaughter, Amber (Matt) Constable, of Mont Vernon, N.H.; great-granddaughter, Natalie Ginette Constable, also of Mont Vernon; and several nieces and nephews.
Shirley's ashes will be interred alongside those of her son, Roger, at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, in Wheaton, Md. For those desiring, her family suggests memorial contributions be made to the American Lung Association; Hospice Care of the Lowcountry, in Bluffton, S.C.; or the charity of your choice.