Patricia Kathleen Shelley

June 10, 1947 — April 28, 2024

Patricia Kathleen Shelley Profile Photo

Patricia Kathleen Shelley (nee Swift), “Kathy,” died peacefully on Sunday, April 28, at 6:45am in Anaheim, California, listening to her favorite hymns surrounded by family.

Kathy was born June 10, 1947, in Grants Pass, Oregon to John Stuart Swift and Patricia Jane Swift (nee Belcher). She was followed by four brothers who looked up to her as a consistent guide and a source of warm-hearted stability. She spent her childhood as an “MK”— missionary kid— learning to fend for herself and her brothers and picking up perfectly accented Spanish along the way.

When Kathy was two years old, the Swifts were called to the mission field with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, inspired by close family friends and missionaries, LeRoy and Lorraine Shelley. They traveled for two weeks aboard the freighter U.S.S. Santa Adela from San Pedro, California to Peru, basing themselves first in Chosica, where her parents ran the Chosica Mission House, and later in Huanuco. At age nine, she was sent, with her brother Ken, to boarding school at the Alliance Academy in Quito, Ecuador. Two years later, the siblings, including brother Keith, transferred to a newly opened regional missionary school in Tournavista, Peru, bringing their pet coatimundi Archie along.

The family returned to the U.S. when Kathy was 15 years old, settling in Southern California, where brother Dan was born and she attended West High School in Torrance. After high school, she enrolled at Simpson Bible Institute in San Francisco, where she was matched with a roommate, Jeanne Martin, who became her lifelong best friend, and learned to drive on the city’s steep hills in a manual transmission VW Beetle. Kathy finished her undergraduate degree at California State University Long Beach.

The Shelley and Swift families intersected again when Randall Shelley had a  break from USC Law School, and his matchmaking mother, Lorraine, suggested he call up the Swift girl, Kathy. This became a whirlwind three-month romance and marriage, weaving the two families together even more tightly. The couple spent two years living in the hills of Los Angeles before settling in Cerritos, California.

Daughter Allison Leigh was born in 1972, followed by Tyler Braden in 1975. All of the skills that Kathy had honed corralling her tribe of brothers and diligently immersing herself in new roles, in concert with her naturally nurturing yet practical personality, coalesced into the role that she cherished most and in which she shined the brightest— parenting. She was an always-empathetic ear, healer, defender and ally extraordinaire.

The family spent many happy years exploring the California coast on their Islander 30 sailboat and their Sea Ray, particularly Catalina Island, where they could often be found anchored in the rustic Little Harbor cove. They were active members of the Voyagers Yacht Club in Newport Beach, where they built some of their most enduring friendships, including that with dear friends George and Phyllis Petty.

Kathy delighted in being very active in the Long Beach Alliance Church, being involved in leadership roles in Child Evangelism Fellowship, and being instrumental in shaping young hearts with her Good News Club meetings in her home. The Shelley home was always a hub for family gatherings, particularly after their move to a larger residence on Alamitos Bay in Long Beach, California in 1988.

When Randall retired, Kathy designed and oversaw the construction of their new home on a bluff overlooking the Puget Sound in Port Ludlow, Washington, and they became snowbirds, spending the cooler seasons at their residence in La Quinta, California— with up to a month in transit exploring the places in between in their RV.  Kathy immersed herself in the community, attending Port Ludlow Community Church, serving as president of the Port Ludlow Homeowners Association, and joyfully gathering with her Bunco Babes group.

Kathy fought stage four kidney cancer for 20 years. She was slowed down by her diagnosis, but she was never defined by it. Her activity with the Kidney Cancer Alliance kept her abreast of cutting-edge technology and involved with a caring community of fellow survivors.

Throughout her life, Kathy was known to all to be deeply spiritual, supremely confident, and bursting with both optimism and pragmatism. Somehow, she really did seem to know everything— friends called her the information lady. Her deep faith was front and center, and she could not wait to be reunited with her mother— her best friend— and to meet Jesus face to face.

Kathy Shelley is survived by her husband, Randall Shelley; her daughter, Allison Shelley and her husband Jon Bougher; and her son, Tyler Shelley and his wife, Melissa Shelley (nee Nypert). She is also survived by her three grandchildren: Charlotte, Logan, and Catalina Quin (named for her grandmother, in the Spanish that she so loved).

To watch the life stream of the Kathleen's services please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8HwRgn-Ids

Luyben Dilday Mortuary (562) 425-6401


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