Shirley Joan Tuthill

Shirley J. Tuthill, 81, died peacefully on April 20, 2013, at her home in Chestertown, MD. Shirley was the daughter of the late, Ralph Wells Tuthill and Laura Fanning Tuthill of Mattituck, NY. After being raised on the last dairy farm on the North Fork of Long Island, she graduated from Cornell University in 1953 with a B.A. in Sociology. Shirley married George Bean in 1954 and eventually settled in Adelphi, MD, where she lived until moving to Chestertown in 2004. She received her Masters in Library Science in 1967 from the University of Maryland, and worked as a librarian in the Prince Georges County Memorial Library System until retiring in 1992, as Director of the Talking Book Center for the visually impaired. Following retirement, she continued working at the USDA National Agricultural Library's Rural Information Center in Beltsville, MD, and at a start-up internet search firm called FYI Online in Silver Spring, MD. A quiet, kind rebel and woman of strong civic conscience, Shirley was a feminist, a civil rights activist, an anti-war demonstrator, and a proud liberal throughout her life. She took great inspiration from strong, capable women like her mother, Laura; Eleanor Roosevelt; Jacqueline Kennedy; Shirley Chisholm; and Hillary Clinton; as well as from writers, musicians, conservationists, and progressive political figures like Martin Luther King, and John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, and Barack Obama. Shirley was an accomplished pianist, participating in a local group called Music Makers that met monthly to sing and play instruments. She loved all kinds of music, from Bach and Beethoven to Brubeck, Coltrane, and the Beatles. She loved playing with her cats and birds, traveling, walking, and cross-country skiing. A lifelong reader, Shirley preferred fiction, especially mysteries, but loved the classics as well. Two of her favorites were short stories that she read every winter at holiday time: Leo Tolstoy’s “The Snowstorm” and Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” A smart, beautiful, open-minded, cultured, sensitive, shy, capable, modest, independent person, Shirley will be dearly missed by all who were lucky enough to know her. She is survived by two sons, Casey Bean and his wife, Min Zhu of North Kensington, MD, and Adam Bean and his wife, Diane Koch of Pittsburgh; grandchildren Austin Bean, Madeleine Bean, Sophie Bean, Nina Bean, Andy Bean, and Camden Bean; sister, Lois Herr and her husband, Bill Herr of Carbondale, IL; brother, Dean Tuthill of Baltimore; ex-husband, George Bean and his wife Barbara Bean of Annapolis, MD; former daughter-in-law, Yukari Kunisue of Hilo, HI; and several beloved nieces and nephews. A service celebrating her life will be held on Sunday, May 12 at 11 a.m. at Heron Point of Chestertown, 501 E. Campus Drive, Chestertown, MD. A graveside service will be held on July 13, 2013, at 11 a.m. at Cutchogue Cemetery in Cutchogue, NY. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Humane Society of Kent County, P.O. Box 352, Chestertown, MD 21620.

Shirley Joan Tuthill

June 18, 1931 - April 20, 2013