Shirley Robinson Byrd

A graveside service to commemorate the life of Shirley R. Byrd will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 17, at Haile Gold Mine Baptist Church Cemetery, 7980 Haile Gold Mine Road, Kershaw, S.C. The Rev. Edgar Horton will officiate. Visitation will be held at Baker Funeral Home, 210 East Hilton Street, Kershaw, S.C. on Wednesday, April 16, from 5:00–7:00 p.m.

Mrs. Byrd, 89, died at MUSC-Lancaster on Monday, April 14, 2025. Born in Kershaw, she was the daughter of the late Robert Brice and Sallie Williams Robinson. She attended Kershaw High School, where she was a cheerleader. On December 7, 1951, she eloped with Bobby Lee Byrd after the Kershaw Christmas Parade in which she participated as a sophomore class queen. She worked at Springs Mills in Kershaw, Skyline in Heath Springs, and the South Carolina Employment Security Commission in Camden. She was a member of Haile Gold Mine Baptist Church, where she served in various capacities.

Along with her late husband, Bobby L. Byrd, she enjoyed attending University of South Carolina football games with dear friends Carol and Minton Phillips. She and Bobby also enjoyed many road trips with her sister-in-law and brother-in-law Mozelle and John Byrd. She and her sisters, Peggy R. Williams and Patricia R. Shaw, loved attending movies and shopping together. Shirley’s 10-layer chocolate cakes were a family favorite and made many appearances at family birthday parties and holiday gatherings, though not lasting for long.

Shirley is survived by daughters Lynn (Charles) Welch and Ann Byrd, daughter-in-law Jeraldine Byrd, grandson Lee Welch, granddaughters Jessica (Jonathan) Payne and Caroline Welch Dalton, great-grandsons Deuce Dalton and Michael Taylor, great-granddaughter Gloria Dalton, sisters Peggy R. Williams and Patricia R. Shaw, special great-granddaughter Tyndall Payne, and a number of other close relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by Bobby Lee Byrd, her husband of 71 years; sons Bobby Lee Byrd, Jr. and Robert Mark Byrd; grandson Chad Byrd; and brothers Earl Dean Robinson and Robert Bruce “Bud” Robinson.

Memorial contributions may be made to Haile Gold Mine Baptist Church, 7980 Haile Gold Mine Road, Kershaw, S.C. 29067, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.

Arrangements are under the care of Baker Funeral Home, Kershaw, S.C.