October 20, 2003 – September 30, 2023

Shelby Layne Hurley was born on October 20, 2003 in Webster, Texas.  She leaves behind her parents Craig and Nicole, two brothers, Hunter and Colby, and one sister, Elyse.  She leaves behind her Hurley grandparents, Harold and Nancy, 17 aunts and uncles and 38 cousins along with numerous extended family. Family was extremely important to Shelby. Her passion was finding reasons to bring family together through activities, games or just laughing together. She loved little children, and we often referred to her as the child whisperer.

Shelby was in her second year at BYU Idaho. She enjoyed her classes, roommates and visiting many state parks with friends including Yellowstone. She graduated from Clear Springs High School in League City, Texas in 2022. She enjoyed color guard and participated all four years of high school. Her favorite classes were TET (teacher education training) class, Astronomy and Forensics. She also attended Creekside Intermediate and Gilmore Elementary.

Shelby enjoyed many hobbies and activities. She loved to dance and graduated from Jill Rauscher School of Dance where she danced from age three to eighteen. Pointe was her favorite, but she also loved jazz, lyrical and tap. Shelby loved to write. She loved creating and sharing stories. She was very artistic. She loved painting and drawing on almost any medium including a pair of jeans that she painted a large mouth bass on, and embroidered the Texas state symbol and frogs on the pockets. She loved making jewelry and learned several different techniques. Shelby loved cooking and baking. She mastered the difficult task of making macarons. She also loved making chocolate chip cookies to help anyone celebrate their birthday. She loved crafting and made a beautiful autumn wreath her first year at college. She also had just completed making a mirror outlined in seashells.

Shelby loved everything outdoors. She enjoyed camping, kayaking, fishing or just going to the beach. She mastered making cobbler in the Dutch oven and even taught other girls to make it at girls’ camp. She loved going on kayaking trips with her dad and older brother, and she loved camping with her family anywhere from Texas to Colorado.

Shelby had a love for all types of music. She participated in many choirs for both church and school. She could always be found singing along to the radio and knew what song was playing before her family could guess.

Shelby was very service oriented. She participated in many service and clean-up projects with her church including hurricanes Harvey and Laura. She also served as the president of her young women’s class in church where she loved making sure all the girls in her class felt loved. She was everyone’s cheerleader and was always trying to make sure others were included. She loved working in the classrooms for TET and looking for ways to help the students improve. Shelby enjoyed her first job at Chick-fil-A in Friendswood. She made many friends and always did her best to smile and help customers. Her last job was helping people in emergency situations. She was able to stay calm to determine what help they needed.

Shelby was the sunshine in our lives. She never met a stranger and loved finding out about people’s lives.  She loved all her siblings. She took time to spend special time with each one. Shelby would even play games online or over FaceTime with her family when she was at college. She has made a huge impact on so many lives for someone so young. Her family will miss her hugs, her ability to make anyone struggling feel loved, and her ability to make us all laugh at any ridiculous thing she did.

Shelby had a strong testimony of Jesus Christ, and she truly tried to live by His example. She may have been taken before her time, but we know she is with our Savior and other family members who have passed on before her. We will miss her and the light she brought into our lives, but we know that we will be reunited with her one day.

Friends are cordially invited to the visitation with the family on Monday, October 9, 2023 from 6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. at Jeter Memorial Funeral Home, 311 N. Friendswood Dr., Friendswood, Texas 77546 (281) 992-7200.

The funeral service will be held on Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 10:00 A.M. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 505 Deseret Dr., Friendswood, Texas 77546 with Bishop Paul Judson officiating.  Interment will follow at Confederate Cemetery in Alvin, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made in Shelby’s name to www.lighttheworld.org/give