RENAISSANCE WOMAN. Growing up in a small town makes it easy to know just about every family in the community. Newman and Gustine were very small towns just 15 or so years ago, and now they are beginning to develop into communities offering more and more services and resources for those living here. It’s still relatively easy to get to know people here, where they live, work and whether they have children in school or not. But sometimes, we think we know a person and find out that there is much more to what appears to be a highly successful, vigorous persona that we know and love.

Such is the case with Shirley Faust Jensen, who died this week after a long battle with cancer. I knew Shirley as an amazing mother, whose children excelled in the swimming pool (where I spent lots of my formative years) and who turned into highly successful business people and community leaders. When I first returned to Newman and the West Side INDEX, Shirley ran the court system here. We still had trials and court running inside the City Council chambers; when the judge couldn’t make it, Shirley took over and managed the cases. She was smart, savvy, engaging and loved by experts in the county court system.

Shirley was also an athlete, an avid tennis player and former Nevada state tennis champion. Until her death, I had no idea she was the first Miss Stanislaus County. Her natural beauty was always matched by her keen intelligence and upbeat spirit; admired and respected in business and when raising her children.

While she served for 38 years in the Stanislaus County court system, she then started another career as a “house doctor” where she and her friend Frances Brunette found ugly old homes and turned them into some of the West Side’s most attractive residences.

Shirley was good at everything, and I never saw her at work or with the family without a smile. She was one of Newman’s finest leaders, and those of us who watched and worked with her over her various enterprises, know how much she gave to this community, its people, residences and small town charm.

Condolences to her husband of 53 years, Lowell Jensen, and her family. You will miss her enduring love and devotion, and we will miss her presence in this changing community.

WATER IS GOLD. Managing Editor Dean Harris gives us a good idea of the challenges agriculture and our communities will be facing this year and into the future. Water is like gold to agriculture, and in turn, to all of us. Growing more than 300 crops in this state requires water, and farmers have found more and more ways to grow more with less than ever before. But if and when water rationing actually cuts allocations substantially (like this year) not only are farmers hurting, but so are we. Food is life, and without water very little grows. We must support any effort to store and secure more water for Northern California and our Central Valley. With more and more people moving and growing up here these days, water is a precious resource for people too. But without proper storage (and that could be dams) that will hold lots of water, we could be hurting not only our lifestyles but our economy as well.

The one economy that has done well the past couple of years is agriculture, which is the heart and soul of the West Side. Agriculture is one business that can’t move very easily; and since we have some of the most fertile ground in the world right here, we need to find ways to bring water to our area so that agriculture can flourish.

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