Cynthia Shanks

Eldest daughter of the late Commander Frederick Leas Worcester and the late Elizabeth MacPherran Worcester.

She married David Carey Shanks on September 1, l962 in Asheville, N.C., who survives. She is also survived by a daughter, Nanon Clarke Shanks Olson, and her husband, Carl Frederick Olson, of Marietta, Georgia and their three children: Kyle Gustav Olson, David Hayward Olson, and Elizabeth Leas Olson. She is also survived by a son, Andrew MacPherran Shanks, and his wife, Keri Lester Shanks, of Woodbridge, Virginia and their daughter, Elizabeth Lynn Shanks.

She was preceded in death by a daughter, Kirsten Conant Shanks, who was survived by her husband, Brendan Michael Halpin, and a daughter, Rowen Shanks Halpin, of Jamaica Plain, New York.

She is also survived by a sister, Elizabeth MacPherran Worcester Numrich, of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, and her children: Philip Wixom Numrich, and Helen Elizabeth Numrich DeFlorin.

Mrs. Shanks was educated at the American International School in the Philippines, Montego Bay High School in Jamaica, and at The Abbott Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Mount Holyoke College in North Hadley, Massachusetts.

After her marriage to Mr. Shanks, she resided with her growing family in Wilmington, Delaware; in Huntington, Long Island, New York; in Wayland, Massachusetts; in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; in Marion, Massachusetts; and since 2006, in Big Canoe, Georgia.

While balancing the demands of child-rearing and homemaking, she worked tirelessly for the benefit of her community. She never lost her love of learning, and was a voracious reader. She loved nature in all its forms, and was a friend of creatures great and small.

During her energetic career she was a research assistant in the Psychology Department at the University of Delaware; a school bus driver and nursery school teacher in Huntington, Long Island; a Bookmobile driver for the Framingham Public Library; a bank teller in Wayland, Massachusetts; an employee of The Sudbury Valley Trustees, an environmental conservation organization in Wayland; a paralegal with Palmer & Dodge in Boston; a member of the Parish Committee of the First Parish Unitarian Church of Wayland; a volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; a member of the Sippican Women’s Club, Marion, Massachusetts; and a volunteer at the Good Samaritan Health and Wellness Center, providing free medical care for residents of Pickens County, Georgia.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Benevolence Fund, Big Canoe Chapel, 10455 Big Canoe, Big Canoe, GA 30143