Elizabeth Annette Broome Shaw

Elizabeth Annette Broome Shaw entered her heavenly reward on Thursday, December 11, 2025, at Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center in Bolivia, NC. This is her story.

Born July 25, 1949, Elizabeth Annette Broome was named for Britain’s monarch, though she went by her middle name. As a child, she thought it was wonderful that she shared the name of Disney’s Annette Funicello. Her parents, Dewey Eustace Broome and Milton Irene Mast Broome, were both educators that held positions in Watauga, Union, and Cumberland Counties. 

On one occasion, at the tender age of four, Annette wandered out the front door of her Boone, NC home and walked to her aunt’s house a few streets away. While she was safely returned to her home, this independence characterized her to the end.

She made an early decision to trust Christ as her personal Savior and began playing the piano for church services at Faulk’s Baptist Church in Marshville, NC. Having attended Forest Hills High School, she graduated at Bob Jones Academy in Greenville, SC. Her mother, Irene, liquidated her retirement savings to fund Annette’s college education at Bob Jones University. Her college piano teacher was the acclaimed Dr. Laurence Morton, and he shaped this largely self-taught girl from the country into the formidable musician she became. She completed the Bachelor of Music Education in 1971, and began teaching music, band, and chorus at Jupiter Christian School in Jupiter, FL. One evening in Jupiter, while grocery shopping with friends, a man in a hurry nearly knocked her down coming briskly around a blind corner. After he apologized profusely to Annette, her friends identified him as famed golfer Jack Nicklaus.

She later accepted a position at Northside Christian Academy in Charlotte, NC, and through her involvement at NCA and Northside Baptist Church met her husband, Birch Shaw. The couple was married on Christmas Eve, 1978. She was the celebrated accompanist for Northside for many decades, opening every Sunday morning service with an iconic arrangement of “Blessed Assurance - This is My Story,” which she arranged with Dr. Lindsay Terry who was like a father to her. Her piano playing was heard by 10,000s in Charlotte through Northside’s radio and TV ministry and around the world through the cassette tape ministry her husband built.

The finest sacred music publishers and choral conductors raved about her and said she was the most talented church pianist with whom they had ever worked. She could transpose into any key at sight. Vocalists could hum a tune she had never heard, and she could accompany them by ear. She also served at King’s Way Baptist Church of Concord, NC, Roberta United Methodist Church, of Harrisburg, NC, and Bethel United Methodist Church of Midland, NC, from which she retired in 2019. 

Perhaps she is best known as a piano teacher, having taught hundreds of students out of her Charlotte, NC home, many of whom have gone on to win awards, and launch successful careers in various aspects of music. She also accompanied students in colleagues’ studios, including the 1998 Young Artist winner who performed the Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.5. Her greatest joy as a music teacher was to replicate herself through her students by training future church pianists. She held multiple leadership positions in the professional piano teaching organizations such as the Charlotte Piano Teachers Forum, Charlotte Music Teachers Association, and North Carolina Music Teachers Association. She was the Webmaster for these organizations and the Editor of the NC MUSIC TEACHER, the professional journal of NCMTA for many years.

Though she had several chronic, serious health conditions, she asked the Lord to help her live long enough for her grandson Liam to remember her. God granted her desire, which points to her favorite Bible verse, “Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4, KJV).

She was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, David, who died of a brain tumor at age 18 months, and her husband, Billie Birch Shaw, Jr. Left to cherish her memory are her son Billy Birch Shaw, III, his wife Ashley V. Shaw, and her grandson, Liam Birch Shaw, IV, of Leland, NC.

A service to celebrate Annette’s joy-filled life will be held on Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. at Benson Funeral and Cremation Services in Mount Holly, NC. Music will be provided by some of her former piano students. Rev. Mark Clontz will lead the service. The family will receive friends at the funeral home at 1:00 p.m. A private graveside ceremony will be held at another time. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the music ministry of Town Creek Baptist Church of Leland, NC, where her son Billy serves as Pastor. Log on to TownCreekLeland.com/Giving and select Annette Shaw Memorial Fund to give online, or mail a check to Town Creek Baptist Church, PO Box 189, Winnabow, NC 28479.