Shirley Cullinane
CULLINANE , Shirley Shirley Anne (Walsh) Cullinane—wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, passed away after a long and courageous battle with ovarian cancer. She was born July 26, 1934 in Waltham, MA to Peter J. and Gertrude C. (Crozier) Walsh of Prince Edward Island, Canada. A caring and confident young woman, she attended school in Worcester, MA and trained as a nurse at Somerville Hospital. Working in the Emergency Department at Boston City Hospital, she met her husband Eugene, a firefighter for the City of Somerville. Their first date was to a local dance hall, at which Gene half jokingly proposed that first night. The couple married after a brief engagement and lived in Massachusetts (Somerville, Billerica, and Falmouth) and Skowhegan, Maine. Shirley and Gene summered at Shirley’s ancestral home of Darnley, on Prince Edward Island, Canada. After retiring as a registered nurse, Shirley was a founding member of the Hardcore Mothers, a group dedicated to fundraising for track and cross country at Falmouth High School; later dedicating time as a coach at Falmouth. At the age of 64 she earned a BA in Women’s Studies from Vermont College and pursued hypnotherapy and Reiki to support people with addictions. Shirley returned to her beloved Prince Edward Island each summer to sing and play her fiddle at local ceilidhs and Ruben’s Jamboree with her string ensemble Charlie’s Angels. Shirley is survived by her loving husband of 64 years, Eugene Francis Cullinane, her loving sisters Anna Kiernan, Donna Richardson, and her seven adoring children: Jeffery (wife Joan) of Hampton, NH; Nancy Weis of Skowhegan, ME; Sandra Dawes (husband Scott) of Richmond, VA; Dennis (wife Karen) of Newburyport, MA; Patricia Cullinane (husband Ruslan) of Shanghai, China; Jason (wife Yuki) of West Falmouth, MA; Erin Villaverde (husband Andrew) of Pasadena, CA; and sixteen devoted grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send donations to the Oncology Department at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, ME.