White Funeral Home
400 First Street West
Independence, Iowa 50644

Independence – Shirley Ann (Wheeler) Kilgard , age 99, died Friday, July 20^th at NewAldaya Lifescapes in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  She was born on July 14^th, 1919 in Aberdeen, South Dakota to Howard Oliver and Ann Elizabeth (Hillman) Wheeler.  She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Roy Wheeler, one grandson, Bryan Kilgard and her husband, Cecil M. Kilgard.  She is survived by two sons: Stevan A. Kilgard (Elizabeth) and Rev. Clark M. Kilgard; five grandchildren: Grant Kilgard, Luke Kilgard (Marcia), Wayne Kilgard, Ellen Chesnut (Kyle) and Celia Schnupp (Michael); and 11 great-grandchildren.

She attended Northern State Teacher’s College and the Chicago School of Design.  She married Cecil Martin Kilgard on January 30^th, 1944.  They resided in Moline, Illinois for 66 years.  She was a junior accountant for Deere and Company in Moline before becoming a full-time homemaker and mother. Later in life, she lived in senior care centers in Silvis, Illinois;  Independence and Cedar Falls – both in Iowa.

Shirley was a member of Salem Lutheran Church in Moline, a member of the Maple Grove Unit of Homemakers’ Extension of Rock Island County, a 50 year Member of Moline Chapter #258 Order of the Eastern Star, a member of Golden Squares and Wheel and Steppers Square Dance Clubs, and a member of the Quad City Plus 60 Club.  She enjoyed fishing vacations, needlework, sewing her own clothes, furniture refinishing, genealogy, and doing arts and crafts with her granddaughters.

A funeral service for Shirley will be held at 11am on August 1st at Salem Lutheran Church 1724 15^th Street in Moline.  There will be a visitation one hour before the service with burial to follow at Greenview Memorial Gardens in Silvis. Memorials may be made to Salem Lutheran Church.  Messages to the family may be sent to www.white-mthope.com

White Funeral Home of Independence, Iowa, is in charge of arrangements.

Shirley was a member of the “Greatest Generation” that lived through the Depression and  World War II carrying the values of faith, hard work, practicality, thrift and neighborliness into the 21^st Century.