Inagene “Jeanie” Day Shipley rode off into the forever sunset on her beloved horse, Dusty, on October 5, 2021. She spent her final weeks in her home of 50 years in Holladay, UT with her younger daughter, her dog, music, and many loving visitors.
Jeanie was born in Murray, UT on January 15, 1946. Unconventional from the start, she grew up wanting to be a veterinarian and cowboy. During her life she overcame much, including polio as a child, and PTSD and depression as an adult. Jeanie graduated from Murray High School in 1964. She reinvented herself many times, morphing from a dispirited LDS housewife to a voracious student of global spiritual philosophies, and from a breeder of champion show dogs to a rescuer of unwanted mutts. After working for the State of Utah as an office manager for seventeen years, she graduated from the Utah College of Massage Therapy and started two businesses, Spectrum Holistic Therapies and Word Service. She spent the next thirty years healing her massage clients and editing the writing of college students, lawyers, and businesspeople.
Jeanie loved animals. She won countless competitions with her Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Basenjis. She enjoyed spending time in nature, especially around Star Valley, Wyoming and Dimple Dell Park. She was a prolific journaler and maker of wry jokes. She once represented herself before the Utah Supreme Court, and won. She valued her autonomy above all else.
She is survived by her children, Vernon D. Shipley (Hayward, CA), David E. Shipley (Fairfax, CA), Karin M. Shipley (Zurich, CH), and Sarah J. Jackson (Philadelphia, PA), and grandchildren Lindsay Backman Greer, Christopher D. Shipley, and Amia L. Shipley-Moore, among others.
A celebration of life will be held from 1-3pm on Saturday, October 9, 2021 at LeJardin, 1910 E. Dimple Dell Road (10600 S.), Sandy, UT. Please share a memory at larkincares.com.
In lieu of flowers please consider donating to one of the organizations she long supported: International Rescue Committee, World Wildlife Fund, Basenji Rescue and Transport (BRAT), or Colorado Basenji Rescue.
Goodbye to a great coworker, therapist, teacher, facilitator and friend. Always moving ahead and beyond in everything she did. Peace to Jeanie in the next chapter. Love, Jill
I fondly remember Jeanie as a part of our Crones Group. An amazing spirit of gratitude in resilience. She shared with us her life stories, and cried with gratitude at the love her children and grandchildren brought to her. She will be remembered respectfully and with gratitude for her humility and simple life grace in the face of many encounters with grace.
So glad to have had the opportunity to converse with Jeanie. Always a depth and a truth. May her legacy be of healing.
Jeanie was special to many people. She had the knack to provide a healing of both body and spirit. Loved her special touch on us all. She will be missed by many.