Mrs. Conner was born Nov. 25, 1920, in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and grew up in Seaford, Australia, where her parents, John Packwood Patey and Clara Johns Patey, owned a guesthouse. She attended Frankston High School and was a member of St. Barnabas Church of England.

During World War II, she joined the Women's Royal Australian Air Force where she served as an air traffic controller in Mount Gambier, South Australia. In Bankston, New South Wales, Australia, she plotted the course of the U.S. aircraft carrying First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to Australia in 1943.

After arrival in the U.S. in January 1947, she married U.S. Army serviceman, William Homer Conner, in El Dorado, Kan., on Jan. 30, 1947. A homemaker in El Dorado for 30 years, she retired with her husband to Bella Vista, Ark. in 1980 and later to Victoria in 1991.

Survivors include her daughters, Debra A. Westfahl of Victoria; Barbara N. Conner MD of Hallettsville, and Elizabeth J. Conner of Hallettsville; sons-in-law, Rock A. Westfahl of Victoria, and Darrel G. Nixon of Hallettsville; grandson, Drew V. Westfahl of Victoria; and numerous nieces and nephews of both America and Australia.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her stepmother, Nellie Riley Gunn Patey of Seaford, Australia; her brother, Kenneth Patey of Roseville, New South Wales, Australia; her step-brother, Ralph Gunn of Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia; and her step-sister, Edith Gunn McClelland, of Frankston, Victoria, Australia.

Memorial Service: 10 am, Friday, June 11, 2010, at Kubena Funeral Home. Family will receive visitors at 9 am, Friday at Kubena Funeral Home.  Rev. Herb Beyer will be officiating.  A private family burial will be conducted at a later date.

Memorials: Shirley Patey Conner Memorial Scholarship (EIN: 27-2804572), 306 Rosewood Drive, Victoria, Texas 77901.