LaDean Andersen Shaftoe

I had a lot of fun with my girlfriends. I met LaDean Andersen (Shaftoe) at Dyer Street Elementary School and we hit it off right away. I used to go to her house a lot on Sundays and eat her mother’s delicious BBQ with her family. I loved being around her sisters, who were all so pretty and nice (most of the time…siblings, you know!) and had the most beautiful voices. All the sisters would sing at church once in a while; beautiful!

I remember being at camp with LaDean one summer and we both got sick, so we went home. We miraculously got well and went to Pacific Ocean Park with my family the next day.


I had a dream while sleeping over at her house once. I dreamed I was married and I looked into the bedroom of my children. Inside were two sets of bunk beds. I knew they were for four little boys because they were wooden with wagon wheels on the headboards and footboards. I knew from that moment on I was going to have four boys. I just think God forgot to mention there would also be three girls in the picture!

LaDean and I sometimes tried to wear matching outfits and loved to borrow each other’s clothes. She had her boy problems, namely one Melvin Davis, who thought the world revolved around her and we thought of a million ways to discourage him, but none of them worked. It was always fun to strategize, hoping some trick or other would work to convince Melvin to discontinue their “relationship.” She actually had a crush on another boy in our group and dated him a little, but as with all teenage romances, it faded eventually…I think it might have been because she moved.

I really missed LaDean when she moved. I visited her in Tustin, CA once, but it was a little too far to keep going back. I caught up on news with her in Oklahoma, Houston, TX and she came to San Antonio with her sisters to visit me once. I am so glad I haven’t lost her. Too bad we just can’t keep up as much as we’d like. I do keep in touch with her thanks to the wonderful invention of e-mail!

She married Bob Shaftoe and has a handful of beautiful children and grandchildren.