Elizabeth Turner Shiers

Elizabeth Turner Shiers, of 501 V.E.S Road, former headmistress of James River Day School, died on Friday, January 7, 2022.

Mrs. Shiers was the daughter of the late Marion Ross Turner and Annie Inez Jones Turner of Denton, Texas.  She was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1934.

A lifelong school administrator and teacher, she had taught in the public school systems of Odessa, Texas; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Lynchburg and Bedford County, Va.  She became headmistress of James River Day School, a Lynchburg private elementary school, in 1985, and retired in 1997.  After retirement, she coordinated the after-school tutorial program for New Vistas School in Lynchburg.

Mrs. Shiers received an undergraduate degree from the University of North Texas, a master’s degree from Arizona State University, and did postgraduate work at several institutions, including the University of Denver, Lynchburg College, and the University of Virginia, specializing in elementary education.

She was an active member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church where she had served on the vestry and as senior warden, and as director of the Logos Program. She also had served on the boards of New Vistas School and the  Lynchburg Museum, and had been active in the Reach to Recovery program of the American Cancer Society.

She is predeceased by her husband, William Winfield Shiers of Lynchburg.  She is survived by one daughter, Elizabeth S. Nolan of Nashville, Tennessee; one son, Winfield Turner Shiers of Nashville; two grandsons, William John Nolan and Matson Mack Shiers of Nashville, and a granddaughter, Elizabeth Ruth Nolan of Nashville.

A memorial service will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 11:00 a.m., with inurnment in the St. Paul’s columbarium.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, James River Day School, or the Westminster-Canterbury Fellowship Fund.

Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family.