Jean Alison Peters Shindlebower

Born in Flint, Michigan, to Charles and Jean Peters, June 24,1941, she soon became a Kentucky gal when Mom and Dad moved South. Jean picked up the ability to use wit in writing from her grandfather Allison Wilder, a poet and a postman. Family events were often written in verse.  In 1957, The four members of the Peters family (Mother Jean, Father Charles, little sister Carolyn and Jean Alison) took an adventurous trip by 28’ boat, through the Great Lakes, Erie Canal, the Hudson and following the Intracoastal Waterway to Savanah, GA. and after having the boat trucked to Gunnersville, AL they proceeded back home via the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers to Louisville. Three months, some 5,000 miles, would be followed by a trip up the Mississippi River in 1960 to St. Paul, MN, in a 35’ cruiser.

After graduating her beloved Fern Creek High School in 1959, she headed off to college.  Jean Alison majored in marketing at the University of Louisville, where she affiliated with Kappa Delta sorority and its sisterhood, shining examples of service and love.

Speaking of love, Jean, a CB’er at the time met a handsome young man named John Wesley Shindlebower, an electronics phile. They were both interested in car rallies, Corvettes, and cruising. They married October 26, 1963. John and Jean built their own recording studio in their home, while John worked for IBM in the day, and Jean at WHAS radio.  Weekends they photographed and taped weddings. And Christmas meant multiple decorated trees, trips to Frankenmuth, MI to Bronner’s, and binge-watching holiday movies. Retirement had them volunteering their time and photography to Kosair Shrine groups, numerous veteran organizations and the Marine Corps league.

Life changes and sometimes not for the better.  John was diagnosed with kidney failure and Jean took on a new role of adapting a bedroom to a dialysis treatment room and allowed John to do his treatments in the comfort of his home.  Even with the very best care, there are limits to how long the treatments work. John passed October 23, 2024, age 84. and with enthusiasm Jean took on a solo life, maintaining all her activities, until her exhaustion and a broken heart failed her after a fall in her home.  She was in palliative care at Nazareth of the Highlands, when she passed away in her sleep, September 1, 2025.

A Celebration of Jean’s life will be held, Saturday, Sept. 27. Visitation begins at 11 a.m. at Schoppenhorst, Underwood and Brooks Funeral Home, The service of remembrance at 1 p.m. Internment at Big Springs will be private. Donations in honor of Jean, May be made to Kosair for Kids, https://www.kosair.org/