Individual Details

The Capital, Annapolis, Maryland, Wednesday, June 25, 2014: REYBACK, SHIRLEY C., a member of the generation who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II, died in her sleep on June 21, 2014 at Sunrise Assisted Living in Severna Park. She was 90 years old. The daughter of Wilfred and Ethel Coates, she was born on May 25, 1924 in Jacksonville, Florida. She spent much of her young life moving around the state, graduating from high school in Ft. Lauderdale in June of 1942, at a time when flotsam from German U boat attacks could be seen washed ashore. An avid student of English literature, she went off to college at Bryn Mawr near Philadelphia, sharing her freshman dormitory with newly recruited WAVES assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. It was during her freshman English class that she saw her first snowfall, prompting amusement in her classmates from above the Mason-Dixon line. Returned home for the summer, she took part in a number of USO events, meeting a variety of young Naval officers on leave from sea duty. When one of them, Kirk Simpson (USNA '44), telegraphed an urgent request to see her, she wasn't quite sure which one he was. But after a whirlwind courtship of three weeks, they were married. A year later he was killed in a plane crash at Pensacola, leaving her a widow with a year old daughter. At a party in Jacksonville, where she was staying with her parents, she met another Naval aviator from the Class of '44, James M. Reyback, whom she married in 1949. They were married for 54 years, until his death in 2003. Following her beloved husband's death, she maintained a daily long-distance telephone courtship with another member of the Class of '44, Bob Rubel of Huntington Beach, California, until his death several years ago. She once remarked that she had found her "raison d' etre" as the unofficial morale officer to the Class of '44. In the mid 1950's, Mrs. Reyback moved with her husband, by then an aerospace engineer for Westinghouse, to Anne Arundel County, settling first in Glen Burnie, moving to Severna Park in 1961. After her children progressed through school, she completed her education, attaining a degree in Early Childhood Education from Towson State, and serving as a Nursery School Director at Harundale Presbyterian Church for 15 years. Along the way she was a devoted Little League mom and Navy football fan, and always enthusiastically supported her children's educational, artistic, and professional endeavors. Throughout her life Mrs. Reyback enjoyed reading, until recent years when macular degeneration largely deprived her of her eyesight. Mrs. Reyback's survivors include a daughter, Lynn Simpson Reardon, an artist living in New York City, a son, James E. Reyback, a school teacher and musician living in Annapolis, as well as a grandson, Kirk Reardon, now completing his final year at Columbia Medical School. A funeral service will be held for Mrs. Reyback at the Naval Academy columbarium at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 25, 2014, where her ashes will be placed alongside those of her beloved husband, the late James M. Reyback. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the John Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, Wilmer Development Office, Wilmer 112, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287. Online condolences may be made at: www.barrancofuneralhome.com.

Birth	25 May 1924	Jacksonville, Duval Co., Florida
Marriage	7 Sep 1944	Pfaeffle Kirk Simpson
Marriage	1949	James Mackie Reyback
Death	21 Jun 2014	Severna Park, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland
Burial		United States Naval Academy Cemetery, Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland

Spouse	Pfaeffle Kirk Simpson (1921 - 1946)
Child	Sherry Lynn Simpson (1945 - )

Spouse

James Mackie Reyback (1922 - 2003)