Lenexa, Kansas – Mavis Lee Boring Shaw, 104, of Lenexa, Kansas, died peacefully on August 15, 2026. Mavis will be remembered by her family and friends as a piano-playing, bunco-loving, gregarious individual.

Mavis was born in Kansas City, Kansas on Flag Day, June 14th, 1922, to Benjamin Franklin Boring and Ida Belle Hyde Boring as the youngest of seven children. She was a proud graduate of Wyandotte High School in 1940. It was at Wyandotte High School that Robert (Bob) Shaw’s fate was sealed. One day, the teen-aged couple skipped school, went to the movies and watched Gone with the Wind.  There, in the balcony of the theater amidst popcorn and Coco-Cola, romance bloomed. 

Mavis and Bob got married right out of high school, eloping at age eighteen and sneaking off to Leavenworth, Kansas for the ceremony.  They told no one for a week. The couple moved to Ellis, Kansas soon after their marriage, because Bob had landed a good-paying job with the railroad.  In1942 the couple’s first child was born: Lana Rae.  She was followed four years later by Michael, and four years after that by Mark.

When World War II called, Bob joined the Marines and received a Purple Heart after being wounded on Iwo Jima. During the war, Mavis and Lana Rae lived for a time with Mavis’s sister, Reva, in San Francisco. After the war, Bob and Mavis bought a home in Kansas City, Kansas, and Bob worked for the Siegrist Engraving Company.

Mavis managed to raise three children, while at various times working at the kids’ school cafeteria, a microfilm company, Inland Cold Storage, and as a bookkeeper at K Mart. Mavis would head down to the basement on Saturdays tackling loads of laundry.  Then, she’d sit down at the upright piano nearby.  Strains of “Maple Leaf Rag” would drift up to the living room, as the kids watched Mighty Mouse in their pj’s. The family recalls that when Mavis was little, she’d watch her siblings take piano lessons and then she’d sneak over to play after the teacher left. Who could predict that years later, Mavis would be the musician for her local chapter of Eastern Star as well as State Musician for True Kindred? Mavis was an active participant in Eastern Star for 58 years and True Kindred for 36 years.

The music in Mavis’ life has continued. Who could have known that she’d write her first piano march at age ninety for Eastern Star and whip out another musical piece at age ninety-three? At Mavis’ 103rd birthday celebration, she wheeled up to the piano and promptly played about five toe-tapping pieces from memory, such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Here Comes Suzie Snowflake.” Also, Mavis played in a band in her nineties at Lakeview Village, her retirement community for over thirty years. During the early 2000’s, Lakeview Village displayed posters of Mavis wearing a colorful outfit and holding maracas, looking like she was just about to launch into a vigorous version of “La Cucaracha.”

Mavis was preceded in death by her husband of 55 years, Bob Shaw.  She is         survived by her three grown children, Lana Rae Higgins (Dave)of Shawnee, Kansas; Michael Shaw (Gerri)of Scottsdale, Arizona; and Mark Shaw (Janet) of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Grandchildren include Todd Higgins (Angie) of Shawnee, Kansas; Dan Shaw (Yuchun Cheng) of San Francisco, California; Adam Shaw (Cara) of Westlake Village, California; Katie Zimbaluk (Miles) of Scottsdale, Arizona; Steve Shaw of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Patrick Shaw of Washington, D.C. Great-grandchildren include Evan Higgins of Shawnee, Kansas; Andrew Shaw of Westlake Village, California; and Zoey Zimbaluk of Scottsdale, Arizona.

It would be remiss to not mention Ewing Bland, a kind, loving gentleman who was Mavis’ very special companion for eighteen years after Bob Shaw’s passing. 

A Celebration of Mavis’ Life will be held in the Heritage Activity Center at  Lakeview Village, 9100 Park Street, Lenexa, Kansas on September 12th at 2:00 pm.

In lieu of flowers, Mavis requested that donations be made to the Kansas Grand Chapter of Eastern Star, 5906 Perry Avenue, Merriam, Kansas, 66203.

We celebrate Mavis’ life and as Irving Berlin wrote: “The song has ended but the melody lingers on.”