- Date Of Birth: November 6, 1919
- Date Of Death: May 17, 2016
- State: Tennessee
Conservation icon, mother, and staunch friend, Shirley Caldwell-Patterson was born on November 6, 1919 to parents Meredith Caldwell and Ellen Thomas Caldwell. The second of four children, her family was rounded out by brother, Meredith Jr, and sisters Allison(Byrd) and Ellen. She died May 17, 2016.Shirley was the last member of her generation of the descendants of her grandfather, James E. Caldwell, family patriarch and founder of the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company, which became Southern Bell. Making the most of a blissful childhood, Shirley grew up next door to her grandparents’ home, Longview, at the corner of Franklin Road and Caldwell Lane and their adjoining farm, Elysian Fields. Shirley’s lifelong ability to fight for what she believed in was inspired by her grandmother, Ma May, who raised the money for the Peace Monument that now stands at I-440 and Granny White Pike. Shirley wrote, “to consider what she accomplished makes me grateful for the pattern she set — not just for the adage ‘to whom much is given, much is expected’ but the joy, the fun of getting things done that need doing — things of more import than self.”A serious young rider, Shirley started showing horses at age seven, and through her childhood showed all over the country with her mother. At the Tennessee State Fair, she and Papa, her close friend and grandfather, entered the Parent and Child Ride. Side by side they rode into the ring, he in his farm riding clothes and she in her formal riding habit, complete with lapel gardenia, kid gloves, and top hat. Shirley wrote, “Round and round we went at top speed, passing the more sedate couples as if they were tethered.” They won, hands down, a blue ribbon and a trophy. Years of riding gave her self-confidence and a love of travel, both of which fueled her all her days.Often she would ride the Longview property with her grandfather, James E. Caldwell. Their discussions taught her about horses, cattle breeding, the evils of smoking, and especially, how to care for the land. These lessons stood Shirley in good stead the rest of her life. Her feelings for Longview and Elysian Fields, combined with her grandfather’s ideas on looking after them, provided the foundation for her interest in conservation.When she was 15, she went to New York City to take college preparatory classes at The Spence School. With visits to art museums, opera in Mrs. Andrew Carnegie’s box every Friday night, and stimulating classes built wholly on discussion, her high school years are an example of how good teaching can impart intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm in a relatively short time. Shirley graduated in the class of 1937 and went on to Vanderbilt, where she majored in French and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1941.She married David Patterson at Belle Meade, on Harding Road, in May 1942. The Meredith Caldwell’s were the last family to live at Belle Meade, which they sold to the city of Nashville to become the Belle Meade Plantation. Shirley and David had two children: David and Sheppard, joined the Junior League, and fueled her love of reading from Moon’s Drug Store’s lending collection. She took a correspondence course in bookkeeping, kept the books at her family’s Nashville Union Stockyards and was its Vice President and Treasurer.. After taking archeological studies at the University of Missouri she began her travels to Greece, where she took classes, taught English, and then began doing archeological digs in Greece and Israel. All her life, she crossed paths with Nashvillian-moved-to-Memphis Lucius Burch. Their time together was spent traveling, hunting and fishing, and always, always, eating well, reading deeply, and enjoying the company of friends, friends, and more friends — an outstanding accumulation of extraordinary people far too numerous to name. Besides her family and friends, Shirley had a great and unquenchable love for the outdoors. Her desire to protect the environment was born from these trips and a lifetime spent enjoying nature. She said, “I’m a fly fisherman. I have a particular affection for rivers.”In 1997, at the age of 79, Shirley saw Vic Scoggin’s documentary about his swimming the entire Cumberland River and she was appalled by the river’s condition. With two friends, she started the Cumberland River Compact, dedicated to enhance the water quality of the entire 17,000 square mile watershed of the Cumberland River.
