Duane Edward Shilling

Duane was born in Fresno September 13, 1956 to Ray and Myrtle Shilling. He was their first son, following after two older sisters. A second son followed 13 months later to complete the Shilling family!

Duane was raised on North Cedar in the house Ray and Myrtle built….on rural property in between a set of grandparents on one side and an uncle and aunt on the other. Growing up, playmates consisted of his brother, sisters and many cousins who gathered with their parents most weekends and involved many baseball games in the cow pasture, make-shift boxing tournaments in the garage and several freezers of homemade ice cream to finish off a busy day at the Shilling ranch.

The family attended and was active at Olivet Baptist Church in Fresno, and Duane was a leader of the high school group. He was popular at school….smart, good looking and athletic. He played baseball, basketball and football, and could always be found in the middle of parties and pranks.

As a teenager, Duane worked summers as a shed boy at nearby fruit sheds and moved on to forklift driver as he got older. After marriage, he worked selling construction supplies for several companies in the Fresno area and also tried his hand at other sales positions.

Duane had his ups and downs during his 69 years of life. For a number of years, he struggled with drug addiction and mental illness, but eventually, with the Good Lord’s help and the help of a dear family friend who placed him in a comprehensive rehabilitation program, he became sober and received help for his mental illness. He remained sober and functional for the last 15 to 20 years of his life. The pride and joy of his life were his 2 sons, Johnathan and Ryan. Though they had too many years apart from one another, for which Duane had many, many regrets, he was very proud of the fine individuals his two sons are today.

For the past six years, Duane lived in Bonaventure Mobile Home Park in Clovis, where he became a familiar friendly face on his daily walks around the park and a fierce competitor at the bunko tables.

Duane is survived by his son Johnathan and wife Kristy and granddaughter Remington of Stockton, his son Ryan and wife Alexandria and granddaughters Peyton and Madyx of Antelope, his ex-wife and mother of their sons Barbara Shilling, his sister Patricia Hinkle and her husband Mark of Woodland, sister Pam Smith and her husband Mark of Fresno, brother Randy Shilling and his wife Dana of Clovis, and many nieces, nephews and cousins, as well as his buddies from the Clovis High School Class of 1974.

Duane went home to be with his Lord and Savior on December 14th 2025, and he will rest in peace next to his parents in Clovis Cemetery. A graveside service will be held on January 28th 2026 at 1:00 P.M. at Clovis Cemetery, 305 North Villa Avenue, Clovis, California 93612.