Shirley J. Salmon

SHIRLEY J SALMON 1934-2019 Shirley Joan Salmon passed away on Monday morning, September 9, 2019. She was 84. Shirley was born on November 8, 1934 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Her mother, Lucille Sant Salmon, died when Shirley was two years old. Her father, Nelson H Salmon, then married Rachel Frost Salmon and later (after Rachel’s death) Fern Mann Salmon. Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, a sister, Reo Salmon Shenk, and her best friend of 33 years, Beth K. McGee. A Memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, September 16, in Westminster Hall at the Kingswood senior living facility, 10000 Wornall Road, Kansas City, MO 64114. Shirley’s father was in the Army Air Force during World War II and she attended schools at several locations before he retired in Rapid City, South Dakota. There Shirley was active in high school, playing the clarinet in band and orchestra, and participating in both debate and declamation. After receiving her BA degree at Huron College, Huron, South Dakota, Shirley taught first grade in Minnesota where, as a first-year teacher, she encountered a little boy who had a severe stuttering problem. While securing help for him, she developed an interest in speech pathology that would last a lifetime. Subsequently, she earned her MA in Audiology and Speech Pathology at the State University of Iowa. She worked as a speech-language pathologist at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota for a year before returning to Iowa to earn her Ph.D. in 1965. At Iowa, she specialized in adult rehabilitation for those impaired from speech language problems related to stroke, and to those with larynx removal due to cancer who needed to learn artificial larynx speech and/or esophageal speech. Shirley rose to the top of her profession and was widely recognized as one of the most accomplished speech pathologists in the world, specializing in laryngectomy patients. She taught at the University of Pittsburg before coming to the University of Kansas in 1968. She held a joint appointment at the KU Medical Center and the Kansas City VA Medical Center for 24 years as a professor and speech pathologist before retiring in 1998. Shirley lectured, supervised, and conducted group therapy sessions as she trained literally thousands of clinicians and patients in medical settings throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Her seminars in Europe were translated into several languages and used for training European speech pathologists. Shirley practiced not only with great skill and dedication, but also with great compassion for the challenges that her patients faced. She helped found the local chapter of the American Cancer Society’s New Voice Club, and also a spousal support group. She was very active with the International Association of Laryngectomees (I.A.L.) and was on the I.A.L. Voice Institute Staff. In 2007 the IAL established the Dr. Shirley Salmon Award, which is given annually to a clinician who has demonstrated knowledge, professionalism and continued mentorship to others in the area of alaryngeal rehabilitation across many years of their professional career. Shirley was a contributing author to the journal “Seminars in Speech and Language”, and edited three textbooks about the artificial larynx and alaryngeal speech rehabilitation. More recently, Shirley volunteered at the Kansas City Hospice and the Salvation Army. Survivors include Thomas Lee Salmon, trusted brother of Doylestown, PA; nephew David Eske and wife Karen of Owings Mills, MD; cousin Karen Spence and husband Jerry of Aurora, CO; and many other relatives and close friends located in the Kansas City area and throughout the United States. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to one of two scholarship funds Shirley established for graduate students in speech pathology: the Shirley J Salmon PhD Scholarship Fund, at the University of Kansas, c/o KU Endowment, 3901 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, KS 66160; or the Shirley J Salmon PhD Scholarship Fund, at the University of Iowa, c/o University of Iowa Foundation, 1 West Park Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52244.

Shirley J. Salmon

November 8, 1934 - September 9, 2019