Laura Juliette Crocco Shaw 10-9-1921 to 5-29-2020

Laura Crocco Shaw was born in Stockton, California on October 9, 1921.  She was the youngest daughter of Angelo Crocco and Rose Bernini Crocco.  Raised on the family farm in Knightsen, she attended Knightsen Elementary school and Liberty Union High School where she participated in academic clubs and high school sports.  Graduating in 1939, Laura attended Stockton Business College where she graduated with a degree in Secretarial Administration.

Laura moved to Martinez, California where she soon fell in with a group of amazing young women.  She met her best friend, Harriet Jackson, and the two of them remained exactly that until Harriet’s death in 2018.  They raised their children together and we remain family to this day.

Laura began her banking career as an Executive Secretary at the Bank of America in Martinez in 1941.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the men were sent to war and the women stepped up.  She moved into the Administrative area of banking where she remained until she retired at the age of 70 as an Executive Vice President for Lafayette Federal Savings. 

During this time, Laura met and married John Shaw, a returning Army
Veteran of WW2.  They raise two children, Leslie and John Stephen, in Pleasant Hill, California.

Retirement did not suit her.  She went to work part-time first for Bank of the West and then for CitiBank, spending the next 8 years fending off their offers to move her into management.  She finally retired from banking in at the age of 78.

In 1998 Laura sold the family home in Pleasant Hill and moved to Modesto, where her late father’s family had put down roots 100 years earlier.  Laura moved to Modesto specifically to help her son John with child care for he had blessed her with two handsome grandsons, Ryan and Stephen, and a beautiful granddaughter, Jillian Rose.  Her daughter Leslie came with her and together they created a home in Modesto that was centered around God, Family and Football.  She embraced her new life and enjoyed every single minute with her family. 

Sundays were spent first praying the Holy Mass at St. Joseph’s Parish and then watching her beloved San Francisco Forty-Niners play the game she had loved since she listened to it on the radio at ‘The Ranch’ with her family.  Faithful since 1946, she coached from the couch regularly firing staff and benching players.  Her favorite players of all time were Joe Montana and Dwight Clark, though she thinks that George Kittle and Kwon Alexander aren’t bad at all.

Laura is survived by her daughter, Leslie Shaw Klinger of Modesto and her son John S. Shaw  (Crissie) of Oakdale.  She is also survived by her grandchildren Ryan, Stephen and Jillian Rose, her nephews George Arata Sr. (Marla) of Modesto and Dewey Mansfield (Lorna) of Eugene, Oregon, her ‘other sons’ Greg Peter Pistochini (Brian) of Healdsburg, Ca and Mark Pistochini  (Deirdre) of Virginia.  Laura is also survived by the mother of her grandchildren whom she loved, Pamela Miller Shaw.

Laura has numerous nephews and nieces in Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, Maryland, Boston and Texas. She loves them all will be of great support to them from her powerful position before the throne of the Most High, Jesus Christ.  She was preceded in death by her husband John, her parents, her siblings Irene, Della, Jeanne and Jerry and son-in-law Fred and daughter-in-law Lisa.

Laura never got the chance to personally thank Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith for the peace of mind those two men gave her as a result of their collaboration.  However, there is no doubt that when she arrived in heaven she sought them out in order to do so.

In lieu of flowers, Laura would like people to consider supporting the Religious Education Department at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Modesto, California or the Stockton Animal Shelter where she met her buddy, Shaw’s Rob Roy MacDuff.

Services will be private as a result of the current pandemic.  Please keep her in prayer, as she will you.