James (Jim) Shaw, 94 years old, passed away peacefully on Sunday, July 17, 2022, in Morristown, Tennessee. He is at home with Our Lord Jesus Christ now, Hallelujah! He was deeply loved by his family and friends and will be greatly missed. Anyone who had the pleasure of knowing Jim will remember his love of our Lord, that Jim knew where he was going after death, and he was ready to meet Jesus.

Jim leaves behind his daughter, Terri Valentine-Duarte (Shaw) and her husband, Manuel Duarte; grandsons Joseph and Anthony Duarte;  daughter, Kathleen Shaw; granddaughter Nikki Valentine-Odens and her husband, Tyler Odens, and great grandsons Jackson and Deacon Odens; great granddaughter, Lauren Valentine; and paternal half-sister, Sandi Rubalcaba.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 36 years and the mother of his children, Janet (Jan) C. Shaw, who passed at age 56 in 1987; his Father, Edmund, who passed away at age 81 in July of 1982; and his mother, Inez, who passed away at age 95 in March of 1994, and his beloved maternal aunt Dorris Morris, who passed away in January of 1994 at the age of 88.

Pursuant to his wishes and the arrangement he made, James will be cremated, and his ashes will be buried with his wife, Jan, at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

There will be no formal services or funeral.

The Life of James Shaw:

James Shaw was born  in Upland, California to Inez Fleming Shaw (Smith) of Flovilla, Georgia and Edmund Wilbur Shaw of Brooklyn, New York. He was their only child. James was known mostly as Jim. He grew up during the WWII and rationing and would tell many stories of the foods and goods that were both available and not available. He had many neighborhood friends. The boys used to go to the beach a lot and enjoyed swimming.

Jim loved trains from an early age and never tired of taking train trips, visiting trains, reading about them, and watching movies and documentaries about them. He recalled an adventure when he was very young and took a trip on the train from Santa Monica with his mama and Aunt Dorris back to their hometown, Flovilla, Georgia. He loved crossing the Mississippi River on a ferry and telling that story.

Jim’s dad had been in the South Pacific during WWII in the Navy as a Seabee; his dad was an electrician, and later worked at the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles. Young Jim took good care of his mama while his daddy was at war. He often walked to the store for her and picked up their groceries, took care of the yard, and did other man-of-the-house tasks. He talked about the enjoyment of reading the letters from his dad. Jim loved his family pets and also raised homing pigeons and worked to pay for their feed. He recalled the difficulty of carrying a 50lb sack of feed home from the store when he was about 12.

Jim went to high school at University High School in West Los Angeles (Chieftains). Based on comments written in his yearbook, he was an A student. He was also a trumpet player for the high school marching band. During a couple summer vacations he worked as a camp counselor for the YMCA. While in high school he also worked at a restaurant, The Toad Inn, washing dishes.

Jim learned to work on cars while in high school pretty much out of necessity and these skills were highly developed throughout his adult years. He also recalled that as an inexperienced driver he had the privilege to drive his dad’s new car and, as luck would have it, he hit the wall in the narrow, steep, and difficult driveway.

Jim enlisted in the Army in 1946 right out of high school and served in Okinawa, Japan.

After he was discharged, he went to Santa Monica City College.  During that time, he also worked on the road digging ditches with some of his GI buddies. After work they would grab a beer and hit the beach. Jim also liked to go camping with friends in mountains near San Bernadino and in Kern County, California near the Antelope Valley where he would live 77 years later!

Jim met his future wife, Jan, at a wedding reception in 1948. The musicians were playing “Some Enchanted Evening" when he looked across the room and spotted Jan. Jan lived in a boarding house for young ladies. He recalled one event they went to very far away. When it was over, by the time he got her home and then back to his house, it was time for him to go to work in the morning!

Jim and Jan got married and moved north to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1950. He then attended college at UC Berkeley. After college he got a position with Shell Development. They had daughters Therese (Terri) and Kathleen. The family moved to Livermore, California when he took a position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), then known as the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. Ultimately, he did a lot of nuclear weapons research and development using tritium and was an expert in his field.

Jim and Jan bought a new house on Florida Court in Livermore and lived there for 10 years. Then the family moved to a larger house about a mile away on Guilford Avenue, also in Livermore. The family used to go on camping trips to the mountains in the Sierras for vacations, they went to visit Jan’s family in southern California, and often to Santa Cruz, California where Jim’s parents moved in the early 1960s. Jim used to take his daughter, Terri, fishing a lot since she enjoyed it.

Jim had so many interests and things he loved to do and a lot of the activities he engaged in were self-taught long before there were You Tube videos! He loved landscaping and gardening and created many beautiful gardens in his homes. He was very good at working on cars and especially loved his Datsun 280Z, telling stories of how it handled on the road. He also expressed remorse and great sadness that he realized in later years, from an experience as a passenger with another “avid motorist” that his joy of driving the “Z” made his wife, Jan, very nervous.

Jim approached any hobby with 100% gusto. He learned to sew with Jan’s help at first and made several well-tailored suits. He also learned how to take apart and reengineer a Bernina sewing machine. He loved cooking and recreated many dishes he had enjoyed at fine restaurants. He and Jan were excellent cooks and enjoyed cooking together. He also loved baking and perfected making true Danish pastries. Jim performed many home remodel projects and loved tile work the most. He enjoyed refinishing furniture. He loved firearms and was a good marksman. He especially loved all kinds of fishing but excelled at fly fishing and tying the flies. Jim was always an avid reader, but he also enjoyed trying his hand at writing books.

Jim was a musician from an early age, playing the trumpet, but he also taught himself to play the guitar and piano. He always listened to music, playing classical music, opera, swing band jazz from the 1940s and 1950s, and Christian music. He created a state-of-the-art high fidelity stereo system back when that was a rare find in a lay person’s home. When his daughter, Terri, was still in high school, she had her musician friends over and they were very impressed with the system.

Jim loved dogs. He would still tell stories about Shire, the family sheltie, and how much he loved that dog more than 50 years after Shire died. He later had Barney, Lassie, Mickey and his last dog before he passed, Cayley. Jim also had cats throughout his life that he loved; there was Pete when he was growing up and as an adult, he had two black and white kitties: Goofy and Rascal.

Jan’s health necessitated that Jim retire from LLNL and spend his time with her. Jim and Jan then moved to Poulsbo, near Seattle, in Washington state to be near to both their daughters who lived in Washington at that time. Jan passed away in January of 1987 from melanoma. This was absolutely devastating.

In 1987 Jim gave his heart to Jesus Christ! After that, his favorite thing to do was to read the Bible and study the word. He also followed many reputable theologians and read countless books regarding his love for Jesus. He went to Israel many times and was baptized in the Jordan River in 1991.

Jim moved to Palmdale, California in 2015 to be near his daughter, Terri, her husband, Manny, and his grandsons, Joey and Tony. In 2017 he moved in with them. His granddaughter, Nikki, and her family lived nearby as well and there were regular family dinners and get togethers. Jim was instrumental in guiding his grandsons to know Jesus Christ. He had a Temporary Ischemic Attack (TIA) in 2018 but with a lot of work and prayer, he fully recovered, although it took almost 18 months.

Jim continued to play his trumpet even during his last years. He was often concerned he was too loud and bought a mute to make his playing quieter. The family told him to keep playing his joyful music as loud as possible. Jim also took on the job of watering potted plants in the courtyard and patio areas and used a moisture meter to determine if the soil was dry enough to need water! Always trying to do the best job possible, that was him. Every morning he would have his coffee and read his Bible, then eat breakfast. Jim enrolled in several online courses to keep his mind active. He took calculus (again) and archeology courses. He enjoyed helping his family with as many chores as he was able, but he also enjoyed their pets immensely. Jim adopted a kitty in the family (it’s really not clear who adopted who) who was missing his young owner (Tony) when he went off to the Marines and taught the kitty a few tricks.

Jim had many friends that cared about him. One of them, only in his 70s, passed away from cancer in 2021. While his friend was in hospice at home, Jim was able to visit and pray with him and over him and attend his celebration of life ceremony. Jim was also friends with Manny’s dad, who passed away this year in January at the age of 98. Jim discovered he had a half-sister, Sandi, in 2021 and met her in person at his home in Palmdale. They became close and she called him nearly every day and they would talk for hours.

The Duarte family, with Jim, moved to Tennessee in 2022 and Jim’s needs were a primary concern with that move. He fully supported the move to the Bible Belt. He even helped to choose the home they moved to. His travel arrangements were carefully made, and he remarked how well he was cared for when the wheelchair attendant had to run pushing his wheelchair to help make the connecting flight! Friends helped care for him in their home until the family could make ready his room. He loved his new room and quickly made it his own, emptying many of his own boxes and hanging pictures. Jim tried to keep mobile and walked every day. He made his own daily breakfast, walking down to the kitchen, and later he washed up his plate. One of the new friends he made in Tennessee would often visit him and talk about the Bible. His friend, William, would take him to his church as well. Other new friends in Tennessee helped him celebrate his 94th birthday at a local steak restaurant. He tried very hard to manage himself and not be a burden, which he was indeed successful at. He was always respectful and thoughtful about the family’s needs. He remained of sound mind and continued to manage his own money and other necessities until the end.

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/james-fleming-shaw/obituary/

Copy