When Shirley Elizabeth Thursam was born on 23 September 1924, in Michigan, United States, her father, Walter August Thursam, was 33 and her mother, Julia Kotlowski, was 28. She married Rulon Done Labrum on 27 April 1946, in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States. She lived in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States in 1950 and Grosse Pointe Shores, Wayne, Michigan, United States in 2000. She died on 24 July 2005, in St. Clair, Michigan, United States, at the age of 80.
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Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis.
"The Detroit Zoological Society was founded in 1911, but the zoo didn't officially open until August 1, 1928. At the opening ceremony, Mayor John C. Nagel was to speak to the gathered crowd. Arriving late, Nagel parked his car behind the bear dens and as he came rushing around the front. A polar bear leaped from the moat in the den and stood directly in front of Nagel. Unaware how precarious his situation was, Nagel stuck out his hand and walked toward the polar bear joking, """"He's the reception committee. The Detroit Zoo was the first zoo in America with cage-less exhibits and the first zoo to no longer keep elephants because of the harsh winters causing psychological stress on them."
"Russell Kelly Office Service is an American office staffing company that operates globally. It was founded by William Russell Kelly in 1946, initially providing office services performed at Kelly's offices rather than at the client's. However, customers asked for the work to be performed at their own offices, and the temporary staffing concept was born in the same year. The temporary workers, usually female, became known as ""Kelly girls"" and the company name was changed to Kelly Girl Service, Inc. in 1957."
Transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from any of the various places (in the West Midlands, Derbyshire, Hampshire, and Surrey) named in Old English from scīr ‘county, shire’ or scīr ‘bright’ + lēah ‘wood, clearing’. It was given by Charlotte Brontë to the heroine of her novel Shirley ( 1849 ). According to the novel, her parents had selected the name in prospect of a male child and used it regardless. Shirley had earlier been used as a boy's name ( Charlotte Brontë refers to it as a ‘masculine cognomen’), but this literary influence fixed it firmly as a girl's name. It was strongly reinforced during the 1930s and 40s by the popularity of the child film star Shirley Temple ( b. 1928 ).
Dictionary of First Names © Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges 1990, 2003, 2006.
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