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Una Cozette Williams Shirts was born in April 1936 on a small cattle ranch and farm outside of Teasdale, in Utah, to Dyle and Ludeal Williams. The farm was nestled between the red rocks of Capitol Reef National Monument and the pine forest of Boulder mountain. She liked to remind her sons of her early childhood without electricity, indoor plumbing, or commercial soap. Cozette went to elementary school in a one room school house and then to Wayne County High. In 1958, she graduated from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where she met and married Robert Garry Shirts in the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a religion which both of them later forbore). They had three children, Matthew, Phillip and Mitchell. Cozette, as she liked to be called, moved with her family to Del Mar California in the mid-sixties.
In 1970, she started an educational simulation company with her husband Garry called Simile II, where she worked until her death. It is now named Simulation Training Systems. During the 1980's, Cozette also started and ran a travel business, named Global Travel of Del Mar. She loved travelling and her business allowed her to see the world. Throughout the decade she visited Asia, Europe and South America. She trekked and camped in India and ran rapids in Peru. She travelled to Brazil several times to visit her grandchildren there. Cozette went on to teach courses on how to travel alone as a woman. She was also an avid and talented gardener. She returned to college to study plant identification and dedicated endless hours to the spectacular gardens at her home.
Cozette was an active member of the community in Del Mar, California, a proud supporter of the ACLU and a feminist. Her children's friends often sought her out for advice and she was always happy to lend an ear and offer an opinion. Cozette also made a point of maintaining a group of close personal friends, for whom she was always available. She was deeply loved by her three children, her daughters-in-law, Leslie and Barbara, and her seven grandchildren (Lucas, Maria, Toby, Tatum, Talon, Samuel and Jared). She was making plans to meet her Brazilian great-grandson, Otto, when she passed away unexpectedly on January 2nd, 2020. Cozette was a dedicated and enthusiastic friend, a skilled professional, and a loving wife, mother and grandmother. She lived a full life and will be forever missed by her friends and family.
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