Shannon Baird Jenkins, 37.

• Position: DEATHS

VALE, NC Shannon Baird Jenkins, 37, of Vale, NC died at her residence Monday, March 16, 2009 after a prolonged illness. Born July 27, 1971 in Sanford, NC, she was the oldest daughter of Carlton Edward and Gloria Norris Baird of Wake Forest, NC.

Shannon graduated from Ashland High School (Ohio) in 1989. Following high school she returned to North Carolina to attend UNC-Asheville where she was a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority and earned a BA in Biology in 1994. She was married in July, 1995. She then matriculated to East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, NC, where she earned her medical degree in 1999. She remained at ECU / Pitt County Memorial Hospital completing a Family Medicine residency in 2001 and then joined the staff of the Department of Family Medicine as a module leader/attending physician. In 2004, she left the residency division to join the staff of MedDirect in the Department of Emergency Medicine (ECU). From there she went to the University of Massachusetts Medical School / UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester, MA in 2005 where she was the Director of Family Medicine Hospitalists and Associate Chief of Hospital Medicine. In her relatively brief career as a physician, her achievements were many. She served on / chaired several hospital committees, was a member of numerous state and national medical societies, lectured nationally and internationally and published widely within the field of Hospital Medicine. She was awarded teacher of the year by the Family Medicine residency at UMass in 2006 and had a scholarship named in her honor.

Shannon was a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hickory, NC and was actively involved in community outreach and service everywhere she lived. She was a devoted and loving mother and wife who enjoyed spending time with her family and friends, watching her sons play sports, playing golf and running. She loved to laugh and was the best storyteller. In the constant pursuit of knowledge, she read daily and was never still. Shannon was a woman of vision and action, responsibility and generosity, determination and gentleness. She lived her short life to the fullest and will be...