Obituaries - Nov. 15, 1996

Gwenllian Shone, an avid bridge player and the former owner of a drive-in restaurant in Michigan, died Wednesday following a long illness. She was 83.

Shone was born Jan. 4, 1913, in Pontypridd, Wales. At age 12, she and her family emigrated to Scranton, Pa., where she lived until she was 23.

In 1936, Shone married and moved to Wyandotte, Mich., where she lived until 1982.

In Wyandotte, Shone and her husband, Edward, raised two daughters. She also sang soprano for the First Congregational Church there.

As owner of the Teddy Bear Sweet Shop from 1951 to 1962, Shone fed Wyandotte’s hungry adolescents hot dogs and hamburgers and slaked their thirst with root-beer floats and Boston coolers at the height of the drive-in craze.

Shone’s husband passed away in 1969, and about 13 years later, she moved to the warmer climate of Oxnard to be closer to her daughter Sarah, who said her mother played bridge five days a week until illness forced her to stop.

Although Shone had fond memories of her childhood in Wales, she never wanted to return, her daughter said.

“She didn’t want to destroy all those beautiful memories,” Sarah Shone said.

Shone is also survived by another daughter, Gwen P. Nowland of Wyandotte. She leaves six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Services will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at the James A. Reardon funeral chapel in Oxnard. Interment will follow at Michigan Memorial Park in Flat Rock, Mich.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Shone’s memory may be made to the Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Assn. Hospice, 1996 Eastman Ave., No. 109, Ventura.

Arrangements are under the direction of the James A. Reardon Mortuary, Oxnard.