Shirley Kirkes Mar

Shirley Ann Kirkes grew up in San Antonio, graduating from Providence High School in 1959. In 1957, she won Miss Angler of the San Antonio Angling Association. She was also selected to be Miss Service Station of Texas in 1959. She entered the world of ballet as the result of a bicycle accident when she was 7. She risked becoming crippled, the doctor warned, unless she undertook an exercise program, so her mother enrolled her in a ballet class. Kirkes’ dance career since has spanned childhood ballet, tap and acrobatics to dancing in professional performances in Las Vegas shows beginning immediately upon her graduation from high school. In the mid-1970s, Shirley turned full time to choreography and formed the Shirley Kirkes Ballet Company. She eventually married musician Jeff Mar, who was hired to edit music tracks and compose music for the company and holds a master's degree from UCLA in music composition. He plays keyboards and was musical director for the pop group The Lettermen and has been a sound editor in films and television. Shirley was also an actress on several television shows, like Laverne & Shirley and The Carol Burnett Show. She taught Scott Baio and Erin Moran dances of the early 1960s for their show Joanie Loves Chachi She danced on the Dean Martin show and later was the choreographer for Steve Martin in The Three Amigos and Pennies From Heaven. According to a 1977 article, she has a black belt in karate and has taught it as well. Then, at the age of 50, Shirley became a painter. In 1996, the couple retired to the coastal village of Cambria, California. Shirley taught tap and ballet dance for 17 years in Paso Robles and is still painting and teaching adult tap classes at her studio in Cambria.