Shirley E Nicholson, 91, a long-time resident of Princeton, New Jersey very sadly passed away at her retirement community in Ottawa Canada on December 15th 2020.
Shirley was born in Ottawa, Canada on April 14th, 1929, to Edith Hunt. Shirley was married to William Nicholson on August 29th, 1952 in Ottawa Ontario. Once William completed University they moved to Montreal where she had her two children. After a short stay in Montreal, the family moved to Lansdale, PA, where they lived for over 10 years. In 1973, the family moved to a house on Turner Court in Princeton where they lived until the beginning of this year.
Shirley loved to dance and sing. She was a member of the choir and a guest soloist at some of the local churches in Princeton. She was also a member of the Princeton Opera Company which usually performed at Washington Crossing State Park open air theater during the late 70’s and early 80’s. Shirley sang in performance such as The Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado. She enjoyed participating as a member of the Acapella choir at the Trenton War Memorial Building. Every chance Shirley had, she would get involved in theater, vocal performance, and opera.
Shirley also enjoyed the ocean and spent many summers at their home in Barnegat Light on LBI. During the winter holidays, Shirley and William would spend time in Puerto Rico at the ESJ Towers.
Shirley is survived by her loving husband William, two children, Pamela Lahoda, her husband Eric, Michael Nicholson, his wife Sarun, her grandchildren, Sarah and Jason Lahoda, Mya, Sofie and William Nicholson Jr. and her beloved Sister, Beverly Swords.
The family would like to thank Dr. Barile, Atkins Care and Susan and Jack McCaskie from Princeton NJ, the staff on the 2nd floor at Sterling Park Retirement, the staff at Ottawa Civic hospital including Melanie Morris and the staff at Embassy West Retirement in Ottawa Canada for all their love, kindness and caring for Shirley in the last years of her life.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to help aspiring artists at Princeton Friends of Opera, P.O. Box 2359, Princeton, NJ 08543-2359