- Date Of Birth: November 26, 1937
- Date Of Death: December 25, 2022
- State: Idaho
Ron was born in Los Angeles, California, in November 1937, during the Great Depression. His Missouri family was seeking work there in the classic “Grapes of Wrath” fashion.
Ron was mostly raised in and around western Missouri and eastern Kansas living in a turbulent family situation. At one point ending up in an orphanage while his father was working abroad in Mexico. His grandparents found him and took him in, raising him for a number of years around Osawatomie, Kansas. For the space of a couple years Ron lived on and off with Lakota relatives on the reservation as the family has Osage Nation (Southern Lakota) roots. Ron himself was a quarter Lakota. Ron was to be greatly influenced by his native heritage throughout his life and had an uncle who taught him much of the “old ways.”
The family situation stabilized and his father returned with enough money to buy a farm in the Ozarks. Ron fell in love with the Ozarks and with his trusty red-bone hound Rusty explored and hunted deep into dozens of waterfall covered primitive areas that he described as paradise and heaven combined. He always said it was impossible to starve there.
Ron worked hard for his father, Earl Shields, and learned everything about taking care of and using teams of draft horses. His father hired him out as “a teamster” to other farmers. Although he worked very hard there was always plenty of “Our Gang” styled adventures to be had with his younger brother Richard “Dick” Shields and many cousins. Dick was not just a brother but a close lifelong friend until his passing a few years ago.
Ron’s Uncle, “Royal Pain” Jack Shields (a pilot, military sniper and ex-FBI agent), was an immense influence on him and took him hunting often, taught him fencing and how to shoot with precision. He also taught him how to drive and ride motor-cycles.
Ron’s community was a rare mixed rural area at the time and Ron grew up with a great deal of African influence.
In Ron’s teen years, he became a talented drummer who performed with local bands made up of both kids and adults. Ron became somewhat of an area celebrity performing on many local radio shows. He made enough money to buy his own pan-head Harley Davidson at age 15. He had many adventures riding that bike, exploring new areas, meeting new people and taking on a few very interesting odd jobs.
When Ron turned 17 he wanted to explore even more of the world so he joined the U.S. Navy in the mid 1950s. They first sent him to submarine school on the Great Lakes but he washed out due to claustrophobia. He was taught navigation and steering and became a helmsman aboard the USS Iowa for a year – steering her through Hurricane Hazel. When he was transferred to the USS Macon, he became a gunner on a five inch turret but eventually the brass found out about his musical talents and he was sent to Annapolis to the Naval School of Music. He played for the military bands as a drummer for the remainder of his hitch. During his time in the navy, he saw much of the world making many port calls at Mediterranean cities like Istanbul, Barcelona, and Scandinavian ports like Oslo.
Ron swears he and a large group of sailors witnessed a huge sea serpent just below the surface of the water while mooring and tying off the cables for the USS Iowa at Norfolk Virginia.
When Ron returned home, he began playing with bands again and moved to Kansas City where the music scene was much more lively. Initially Ron could not get work or get into the union, but because of his African American “colored” connections, he got work with the “Black music union” and played with mixed groups. Ron was hot and got noticed fast. The better more influential groups and agents wanted him. He began playing with notable bands and names at the time and even doing recording and studio work. He was mentioned in Rolling Stone and even got a full write up in Downbeat Magazine in the early 60s.
Ron met his first wife, Eva Jeanne, while playing in Kansas City nightclubs. She was a stewardess and they fell in love. She was from Salmon, Idaho, so Ron went west to meet her family and start a new life. Ron stopped playing full time and became a lineman for Idaho Power. He started a family in Salmon with Eva Jeanne and they had three children together, Ronny, Freddy and Krysstina.
Ron desperately wanted to continue with his musical career, truly believing if he put his whole heart into it he could “make it big” or grab “the brass ring,” so he quit his job with Idaho Power and went on the road again with numerous traveling bands. He joined a couple of bands that even had TV appearances such as Marie and the Scarlets and the famous Chuck Barry. One of Ron’s proudest achievements he boasted about was one of the recordings he did with Chuck Barry made it onto the Voyager Satellites that are now deep in space beyond our solar system. He remarked jokingly that perhaps someday aliens would hear his musical talents.
Trying to pursue a musical career on the road all of the time fractured his family and regretfully Ron put his career before family. It was while playing at the West Bank in Idaho Falls, Idaho, that Ron met his second wife Irma Deanna Arave. Ron returned to Kansas City and worked the nightclubs again while taking day work as a commercial display window artist and salesman at Robinsons on the Plaza.
After starting a second family Ron realized he just would never make the “big time.” He had fallen in love with Idaho, and so moved back to Idaho Falls and started his own contracting business. He still played in nightclubs throughout the region when the work was good and even picked up a gig in Nashville teaching one of the Mandrelle sisters how to play the drums.
Ron’s small business was Hawkeye Graphic Arts and contracting.
Ron’s businesses finally began to boom and expand. Ron was an extremely talented carpenter and he began doing high end custom cabinet work. In addition, Ron did custom tile work and bathrooms. He got large contracts fitting golf and country clubs throughout the region with cabinetry, bathrooms, wine racks, special exterior features such as ramps and awnings, etc. Eventually Ron got contracts to frame and finish whole apartment complexes. These were some of the best and happiest times for Ron Shields. Unfortunately the recession of the late 1970s changed everything and wiped Ron out.
Ron had four children with Deanna: Aaron, Andrina, Ryan and Sterling. Unfortunately with the loss of his businesses, never ending court cases that he pursued for recovery of damages and purchased materiel, and the devastating loss of his own father, Ron’s life fell apart. Ron began playing again full time in nightclubs throughout the area, and after seventeen years with Deanna, the two divorced.
Ron met his final life partner, Ree Woodard of San Jose California, in the mid 80s. Their shared passion of their Native American backgrounds and heritage instantly brought them together. Ron began working at the Development Workshop of Idaho Falls eventually climbing to be the development production, maintenance and materials manager of the whole site. Ron became a professionally trained adaptive specialist who designed and built special chairs, limbs, and custom attachments that assisted people with diverse physical disabilities to have a much better quality of life. In this position, Ron thrived and invented new items and processes still in use today. He said it was the most rewarding work of his life. Ron retired from the Development Workshop in the early 2000s and has been retired ever since helping to raise his final child, his beloved son, Dakota Shields.
Ron’s stubborn free spirit caused him to split with Ree a decade ago and he has devoted himself to his family and his hobbies since then. Besides music, art, carpentry, and riding motor-cycles, Ron was also an avid collector of Native American artifacts. Ron spent untold hundreds of hours with family members “arrowhead hunting” across large, mostly uninhabited areas of Idaho. Ron even taught a course on Primitive Flint Napping for a time at Idaho State University.
Ron will be remembered by his many family members and friends as an always confident, charming, incredibly talented, good natured man of boundless energy and drive.
Ron chose to be “crispy crittered” as he always jokingly remarked and has a special place in mind for his remains to be thrown upon the wind. When the weather gets a little better, the family will assemble to honor his final wishes and have a picnic to celebrate his life.
Ron is survived by six sons and two daughters, fourteen grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. He is survived by his sons, Ron and Fred Shields of Salmon ID, Aaron, Ryan and Sterling Shields of Idaho Falls, ID, Dakota Shields of Pocatello, ID; daughters, Krysstina Shields-Schmit of Navarre FL, Andrina Shields of Scottsdale, AZ; and sister Donna (Shields) of Independence, MO.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Earl and Dorothy Shields of Grandview, MO; brother, Richard Shields of Grandview, MO; sister, Patty of Independence MO; and grandson, Robbie Graves of Scottsdale, AZ.
