Shirley E. (Mccann) Hersh

Shirley Elaine (McCann) Hersh, 92, of Elizabethtown, PA, passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 30, 2025 at the Masonic Village Elizabethtown, PA. Born June 17, 1932 in Glen Rock, PA, she was the daughter of the late George Preston and Arabelle (Reichard) McCann.

Shirley grew up in Hershey, PA and was a graduate of the 1950 class of Hershey High School. She earned her nursing degree from St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1953 and became a registered nurse. If you met Shirley you knew within 5 minutes she was a nurse. Her trademark “Honey I’m a Nurse” got her out of a couple of speeding tickets! Shirley worked in hospitals and doctor’s offices over the course of her career in New Jersey and Westminster, MD. She completed a refresher course at Lancaster General Hospital in 1979 upon which time she moved from Westminster to Lancaster and became the night nurse at what is now Alcoa. Upon her retirement in 1991 she returned to Alcoa as an agency nurse, working until well into her 70’s. She moved to the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown in 2015 where she continued nursing duties volunteering to take blood pressures for the residents.

Shirley loved to travel and was very active with her high school classmates and the retirees of Alcoa. She organized trips locally and throughout the US including cruises to the Caribbean and Alaska. She also traveled extensively with her country music DJ friend “Dandalion” which included a trip to Ireland with Garth Brooks and hanging out with Willie Nelson on his tour bus. She was a fifty year member of the Eastern Star and a member of the Red Hat Ladies Society. Shirley loved Penn State football, the Baltimore Orioles, playing cards, dominoes, Bingo and the lottery. She taught all of her grandchildren how to play poker.

She is survived by her children, Steve Hersh and Diane of Berlin, MD, Tom Hersh and Sally of Westminster, MD and Jayne Bowersox and Steve of Wesminster, MD; grandchildren, Katie Hersh, David Hersh and his wife Rachel, Billy Hersh and his wife Megan, Mary Hersh, Elizabeth Bowersox, Caleigh Bowersox and Sara Ansteatt; great grandchildren, Owen, Olivia, Augustus, Everett  and Juniper and numerous nieces, nephews and extended loving family members including her former daughter-in-law, Karen Hersh with whom she remained very close.

She was preceded in death by her brother, William McCann and sister-in-law, Bev McCann and her sister, Alyce (McCann) Gallager and brother-in-law, Tim Gallagher.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, PA 17022. We cannot thank the staff of Washington 2 and Masonic Village Hospice enough for the kind and loving care they provided to our mother and our family.

A celebration of life will be held at a later date. Interment will take place at the Glen Rock Union Cemetery.