During the summer of 1930, 12-year-old Shirley Doreene Ferguson became a local hero. What she didn’t know was that fate was giving her a peek into her future.

The daughter of Samuel Ferguson and Jane (Gordon), who had both immigrated to America from Ireland in 1900, Shirley lived with her parents, two sisters and one brother on Elm Street in Warwick. Her father was the owner of a remnant shop and her 19-year-old sister Millicent acted as the store’s manager.

Shirley’s penchant for being in the right place at the right time actually presented itself when she was just 10 years old. On a visit to Pontiac, she noticed that a young boy attempting to swim across the Pawtucket River was having trouble. She quickly went to his aid. The following year, she pulled from the water a little girl who hadn’t yet learned how to swim and was descending beneath the surface.

Now, before her 13th birthday, she would save yet another life. While at Goddard Memorial Park, she heard someone calling for help. A 16-year-old girl out swimming had grown too exhausted to make it back to shore. Shirley jumped into the water and swam out 200 feet. She helped push the girl up into a rowboat, and once they reached shore, she assisted in resuscitating the victim.

Newspaper accounts of her annual heroic feats pointed out that it was her Girl Scout training that had enabled her to act with such bravery and knowledge.

Shirley went on to graduate from Warwick Veterans Memorial High School, where she was described in the yearbook as “always ready to see the sunny side of things.” The serene-looking blonde with stylishly bobbed hair excelled in sports such as tennis and basketball and was also a member of the biology club. Her goal in life was to become a physical education teacher. But her true calling in life had already been determined.

In 1938, Shirley graduated from the Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing and went on to become an operating room nurse at Jane Brown Hospital in Providence. In May of 1941, she married Lee Joseph Joyal and later became the public health nurse for the city of Warwick, a position she held until retirement.

Shirley passed away at the age of 87 on July 17, 2004, at Harborside Healthcare in Bedford, Massachusetts. She was laid to rest at All Saints Cemetery in Warwick.

The brave little girl who was known for saving lives even before reaching her teenage years became a woman dedicated to saving many more.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.