Shirley Clark Lauffer of Wellfleet died at the Windsor Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in South Yarmouth on Christmas Eve 2021. She had just turned 95.
The daughter of Blanche and Ronald Clark, Shirley was born on Dec. 20, 1926. She grew up in Fort Fairfield, a small town in rural Aroostook County, Maine, on the Canadian border.
As a child, she walked to school every day no matter the weather, and when school would close for the potato harvesting season, as it did in the 1930s and ’40s, she would work in the potato fields with her brothers, R. Ted Clark and George D. Clark. She often shared fond memories of those times with Wellfleet friends.
Shirley grew into a strong-willed woman who never accepted being told “no.” She was a solution-seeker whose motto might have been “There simply has to be a way!” More often than not, she found the way.
After she attended nursing school in Portland, Maine, she became a nurse in the Bridgewater schools. Her work required that she serve five schools; she also visited the homes of struggling students to assess their physical needs.
Her friend Terri Frazier said Shirley was known to “bend the rules a little” to provide winter coats, hats, or mittens to children in need. Shirley recalled former students by name (as well as their ailments and treatments) long after her retirement.
That same refusal to take no for an answer characterized Shirley’s life in Wellfleet. She married Dwight Newell, who introduced her to the Cape in the 1940s. After she gave birth to her son, Clark, in 1949, Shirley and Dwight divorced. Some years later, Shirley married Paul Lauffer. In 1961, they bought a piece of property on a dirt road in Wellfleet, where Shirley put her “attractive Wellfleet trailer” with attached porch. She planted flower and vegetable gardens all around it.
Shirley and Paul spent their summers in Wellfleet until the early 1970s, when they divorced. In 1994 Shirley determined to build a house on the trailer site, overseeing the building process in her resolute way. If her contractor said something could not be done, she insisted it could, and it was.
After her retirement from the Bridgewater schools, Shirley moved to Wellfleet full-time. She quickly became a well known and beloved member of the community. Her daily late-afternoon bike ride to the pier and walks at Mayo Beach gave her great pleasure.
Shirley was also a consummate shopper. Her friends say, with a twinkle in their eyes, that there must be many local businesses that suffered first-quarter losses in 2022.
By her own account, Shirley had a quick temper and didn’t suffer fools gladly, but she had a kind heart, taking on the hardships of others as a personal challenge. According to her friend Richard Wulsin, she possessed an inherent sense of being there “just in time” for those in need, usually with a thoughtful gift or card.
Two of her favorite places were the Wellfleet Public Library and the Wellfleet Council on Aging (now the Adult Community Center). Her friends agree that Wellfleet will not be the same without her inimitable presence. They see her in this line from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
Shirley was predeceased by her son, Clark Newell, who died of leukemia in 2019. He was the love of Shirley’s life.
A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 8 at Oakdale Cemetery in Wellfleet.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Shirley’s memory can be made to the Carrie A. Seamen Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 13474, Provincetown 02657, or to the First Congregational Church of Wellfleet, UCC, P.O. Box 1300, Wellfleet 02667.
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