Shelagh M. Abbott

Shelagh M. Abbott died Wednesday, August 14, 2019, in Cabot. She was 95. She was born in 1923 in Hampton Wick, near London, England. During WWII she served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, part of the Royal Air Force. In 1943 married an American serviceman, JW "Jack" Abbott, moving to the U.S. in 1947. They moved to Mobile, Alabama, the following year when JW was assigned to Brookley Air Force Base. Shelagh became a US citizen in 1951 and began working at Brookley AFB as a budget analyst. In 1965 the family moved to El Paso, Texas, then, in 1969, moved again to Marfa, Texas, where Shelagh became city secretary/city manager. In her 15 years in that position she brought in more than $8 million in state and federal grant money to improve the lives of the city's 2,100 residents. After JW's death in 1985, she moved to Cabot, in 1986 to be near her daughter and her family. She became a real estate broker, co-owning Action Realty in Cabot and Beebe, eventually becoming affiliated with Century 21. She retired in 1998. She was preceded in death by her parents Fred and Elizabeth Mary Saunders and her brother, Michael John Saunders, and her husband. She will be missed by her family: her sons, John Michael and Joseph Abbott; daughter, Patricia (Larry) Adams and daughter-in-heart Marianna (Jim) Campbell; her grandchildren, Kathy (Brian) Rowland, Cory (Andrea) Adams and Jason (Emily) Adams; great-grandchildren, Abbey (Logan) Meurer, Marlie Allgood Nicholas, Tatum and Josie Holder and Eleanor and Milly Adams and many friends, including her Bunko buddies of 21 years. Visitation will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, August 17, 2019, in the chapel at Moore's Funeral Home in Cabot, with services to follow at 2 p.m. Her ashes will be buried at the Adams family plot in Rector, at a later date. The Abbott family asks that you please donate to the charity of your choice. Arrangements are by Moore's Cabot Funeral Home (501) 843-5816. Please sign the online guestbook at www.moorescabotfuneralhome.com.