Shoemaker, Ila June Litwiller (1927-2010)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Sep 6 p. 13

Birth date: 1927 Jun 12

text of obituary:

JUNE SHOEMAKER

Ila June Shoemaker, 83, of Greencroft Healthcare Center, Goshen, Ind., died Aug. 23, 2010, from the effects of pulmonary fibrosis. She was born on June 12, 1927, to Albert and Verna (Conrad) Litwiller in Morton, Ill.

She married Donald Shoemaker on June 22, 1947, in Morton.

She graduated as valedictorian from Morton High School and attended Goshen College for one year. She and her husband spent more than 50 years farming the Shoemaker family farm near Dakota, Ill.

She was an active member of Freeport (Ill.) Mennonite Church for more than 50 years, teaching children in Sunday school and Bible school, where she made each child feel loved and valued. She sang second soprano with the Chapel Singers, a ladies sextet, for more than 35 years and was an active participant in Mennonite Women.

She volunteered as a teaching aide at South Side School in Freeport, assisting with students with severe developmental disabilities. She was a member of the Happy Day Home Extension unit in Illinois. In later years she and Don took their turn to sit with the homeless in Freeport.

In 2005, they moved from the farm to Greencroft in Goshen, where they could be closer to their children. She was a member of College Mennonite Church. She will be remembered for living her faith through her kindness, hospitality, unconditional love and encouragement shown to family, friends and strangers alike.

Survivors include her husband, Don; four children, Larry Shoemaker of Goshen, Joyce Yoder and her husband, John, of Bryan, Ohio, Sandra Friesen and her husband, Doug, of Goshen, and Nelda Wittig and her husband, Bill, of Iowa City, Iowa; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by two sisters, Jean Eigsti and Leda Podbelsek.

Services were held at College Mennonite Church. Burial was in Violett Cemetery in Goshen.