- Date Of Birth: April 4, 1934
- Date Of Death: February 11, 2023
- State: Maryland
Willie James Shaw was born on April 4,1934 in Lake City, Florida. The last child born out of eleven children, and the last surviving offspring, from the union of John Wesley Shaw and Nora Ellen Hall. He attended Pinellas County High School and helped initiate the first co-ed Home and Economics class in his school due to his varied interest in extracurricular activities at school, all the varsity sports the school offered and his amiable nature and popularity in school. The class provided him with useful cooking and sewing skills which he would showcase later in life. With an eye on graduating and making it into college football, he suffered a major setback to that plan with an injury during a game that left him permanently sidelined. Upon High School graduation in 1951 he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Busan, South Korea with the Eighth Army Division where he was trained and operated as a draftsman, making technical maps and plans for mining capabilities and detection. He was honorably discharged in 1953. With the GI bill, he enrolled at Florida AMU graduating in 1960 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Education. Mr. Shaw also attended D.C. College taking drafting and printing courses. With his Education degree, Mr. Shaw gained a job with the D.C. Government, a Federal Government position as first an Education Therapist, and later as an Education Specialist in the city’s mental health hospital. He worked 30 years as a Federal Employee, retiring in 1994. In 1964, he met Joan F. Harvey in Washington D.C. They were married in 1965. They were married for 58 years.
Willie always had an interest in Engineering, Art and Photography. During the 1980’s, he took classes and gained certification to be a professional photographer. He opened up his own Photography and Videography business. The business worked with various churches in the D.C. metropolitan area providing them with quality service at affordable prices.
He never lost his love of drafting, drawing, cooking, and designing. He loved to greet one with a disarming joke to put others at ease, and probably himself as well. He was charming and talented and will be missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his loving wife, Joan F. Shaw; Two children, Franciea Young, Willie Mansperger (Sean), and a third child predeceased him, Kathleen Shaw, an infant that lived for only two days (1977). He leaves behind three grandchildren, Anthony Michael Young, Duncan Shaw Mansperger and Vera Eve Mansperger, plus cousins, plenty of nieces and nephews, and many people who will remember him fondly.
