The Baltimore native who gave birth to the man who gifted the world such beloved classics as “Under the Sea,” “Be Our Guest” and “Mean Green Mother from Outerspace” has passed away.
Shirley Glass Ashman Gershman, mother of acclaimed Baltimore-born lyricist, playwright and stage director Howard Ashman, died on Monday, Mar. 31. She was 100.
The Academy Award and Grammy-winning Ashman – whose best-known works include songs for “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Little Shop of Horrors” with composer Alan Menken — died in March of 1991 from complications related to AIDS. He was 40. Ashman is largely credited with the “Disney Renaissance” of the 1980s and ’90s and is considered a Broadway icon.
In interviews, Gershman, a former cabaret singer, said that she selected her son’s name because she thought it sounded like a good stage name. Ashman’s lifelong passion was theater, and he was a member of the Children’s Theatre Association throughout his younger life.
Gershman was born Shirley Thelma Glass to Sol and Esther Glass (nee Macht). She lived most of her life in Baltimore, with the exceptions of spending some of her adult years in New York and Georgia.
She was married for 24 years to Raymond Albert Ashman, an ice cream cone manufacturer, until his death in 1973. They had two children, Howard Ashman and Sarah Ashman Gillespie.
Like her son, Gershman enjoyed performing in public. As a young singer, she performed regularly for the USO, the Jewish War Veterans, and with community light opera companies around Baltimore.
“Shirley’s father taught her the first song she remembers singing, [Eddie Cantor’s] ‘Keep Young and Beautiful,’” read her family’s memorial post on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros. “When asked who she sang for, Shirley replied, ‘Anyone who would listen.’ … She sang at the weddings of all her many nieces and nephews. As one bride put it, ‘It’s not legal until Aunt Shirley sings.’”
After her son’s death, Gershman was a strong supporter of AIDS causes and organizations, including the local Steven Kaufman AIDS Outreach Fund.
“Aunt Shirley was a force of nature — with a voice that she happily shared,” wrote Pikesville resident Susan Weikers. “I was invited into her circle by marriage — my sister Barbara married her nephew Stan, and Aunt Shirley included Barbara’s younger sister, me, in dinners and events. … We remained connected and it was a gift. She will be missed by all of us privileged to know her.”
Graveside services for Gershman will be held on Wednesday, Apr. 2, at noon at Oheb Shalom Memorial Park, 430 Berrymans Lane in Reisterstown.
Donations in her memory can be sent to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, 165 West 46th Street, #1300, New York, New Yor 10036, or the charity of your choice.
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