Shelby Jean Breedlove

Beloved daughter of God Almighty, in Whose house she now resides. John 1:12, 14:2.

Shelby Jean Breedlove died on May 25 at the age of 82. Shelby was the daughter of the late Charles Aubrey Bolton and Mildren Inmon Bolton and husband of the late Doyle Gene Breedlove. For now, she leaves behind her brother and sister-in-law, Dr. Thomas and Mary Bolton (Hot Springs, AR); her first son and daughter-in-law Charles (Cary) and Tammy Breedlove (Madison, MS); her second son and daughter-in-law Scott and Julie Breedlove (Dallas, TX); her nine grandchildren Blake, Aubrey (Samantha), and Jave, and Savannah (Carter Blackwell), Jace, Shiloh, Sarah, Jonas, and Joshua; one great granddaughter, Charlie; and many extended family members and friends.

Shelby was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was a teenager during the turbulent times of school desegregation there. She achieved her undergrad at Ouachita Baptist University. She was active in church, music, and church music. One day as a young adult at church, as she sang, played the piano, and spoke, she caught the eye and eventually the heart of a country-boy railroader named Doyle Breedlove. “What a weird name,” she must have thought. Not too many months later, they married in 1965—a crucial move according to Cary (born 1967) and Scott (born 1969). It’s not clear that everyone was enamored with her decision at the time, but folks came around.

Shelby got a master’s degree in Organ at Washington University in St. Louis, which we don’t think she used when she joined Doyle working full time programming computers and managing people for the Missouri Pacific, later Union Pacific, Railroad in St. Louis, Missouri. But she definitely used that education for her weekend+ vocation as the organist and music director at several churches in the St. Louis area over the years. She and Doyle were both passionate about ingraining music into the bones of their boys, too, even as they discipled the boys and encouraged them in academics and sports (fortunately, her hand-eye coordination was a heritable trait). Her sons could not be more thankful for the mother she was, and Doyle would get emotional explaining the blessing she was to him. What an incredible gift!

Her passion for church music—and Doyle’s for investing and frugal living—allowed them to retire from the railroad quite early, and they began their “working retirement” phase before Shelby had even turned 50. For the decades that followed, the couple served God through music and more at churches in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas (Covenant Presbyterian Church), making friends, discipling, and meeting a variety of their siblings-in-Christ.

Shelby was passionate about abiding in Jesus and soaking in His Word. From her many years in Bible Study Fellowship in St. Louis, her sons remember she was up at crazy early hours in the morning with her Bible highlighted in more colors than a rainbow. She continued learning and leading in BSF in her later years. Teaching and leading children in music and BSF was a particular passion of hers in Russellville, Arkansas, both before and after Doyle passed away in January 2017. It was at an early-morning BSF event in Russellville where she suffered her first stroke in September 2021.

After that stroke, Shelby required 24-hour nursing care and landed at St. Catherine’s Village, a wonderful nursing facility near Cary and Tammy in Mississippi. There she recovered some of her piano skills, kept up with her family and friends through her smartphone and their personal visits, and watched a lot of Hallmark movies. During Shelby’s years at St. Catherine’s, Cary and Tammy worked with the nurses to take care of her, visiting practically every day, which is about how often Scott FaceTimed with her from Dallas. And when she needed a wheelchair ride around St. Catherine’s big pond, Scott would drive out for a visit.

From her strokes and during her time in the nursing home, through periods of rehabilitation and setbacks, Shelby changed. But God and His love for her never did. May He now be glorified in her passing.

Her Service will Saturday, May 31, at the Covenant Presbyterian Church at 2810 S. Knoxville Ave. in Russellville, AR.  Visitation will be from 10-11AM and service starting promptly at 11AM.  Internment will be in the Minnow Creek Cemetery in Lamar. AR.

Officiants will be: Nicholas Davelaar, Don Erwin, and Jonathan Sargent.

Arrangements are under the careful watch of Russellville Family Funeral.  Please sign the online guest book and leave your memories of Mrs. Shelby.