Shirley Byerly to speak at Mobile reunion

Shirley Byerly will speak Thursday afternoon:
 
Shirley Booth Byerly is a master storyteller, folklorist, genealogist, and local historian.  Each year, she reenacts at Fort Morgan with the Battle of Mobile Bay, where, during the Civil War, Admiral David Farragut uttered his famous phrase, “Damn the torpedoes;”, and at Fort Mims, the massacre that provoked Andrew Jackson’s battles during the War of 1812.  Additionally, Shirley is a treasure trove of local folk-tales, legends, and historical information.
 
Born in Pensacola on July 14, 1953, to Rita Moye Booth, Shirley spent her childhood in Fairhope, Alabama, and attended public schools there. Shirley’s father, Ples Farrish Booth, was lost at sea while aboard the U.S.S. Princeton, February 5, 1953, five months before her birth.  At the age of seven, her maternal grandmother encouraged Shirley’s love of genealogy by attempting to explain how she was lucky enough to have six living grandmothers!  Following the birth of her own daughter, Trina, Shirley’s family was featured in LIFE Magazine, “Six Generations without a Gap,” with an Alfred Eisenstadt photograph of Trina Byerly, her mother Shirley, grandmother, Rita Hall, great-grandmother, Geneva Beachnau, great-great-grandmother, Stella Godwin and Trina’s great-great-great grandmother, Roxanne Steele, aged 100.
 
Shirley met and married her husband, William L. (Bill) Byerly, following a 3-day courtship.  They were married in 1970 and moved to Pensacola where their three children were born.  She later earned a B.A. degree from Livingston University, with a double major of history and English.  She also holds a Master’s degree in Teaching and a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of West Alabama. Shirley also has the proud distinction of having attended college classes with each of her children: Trina Roxanne Davis, Trisha Rhondelle Wiggins, and Adam Blake Byerly.  She and her husband Bill are also grandparents to an even dozen grandchildren and one great-grandchild.