Shirley Mae Plumb

Shirley Mae Plumb, 91, of Davenport, passed away on Monday, February 16, 2026, at Mercy One/Genesis in Davenport. A visitation will be held on Friday, February 20, 2026, from 10 am until noon at The Runge Mortuary. Services to honor her memory will follow the visitation. Her final resting place will be in Nichols Cemetery, Nichols, IA.Memorials may go to Gilda’s Club.

Shirley was born May 11, 1934, on the Mills Family Farm in West Liberty, IA, to Harry L. and Felcitas T.(Mills) Braun, and grew up in Nichols, IA. She attended a country school and graduated from Nichols High School. She graduated and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Iowa State Teachers' College and her Masters degree from the University of Western Illinois.

She married Kenneth R. Plumb on July 01, 1962, at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Davenport and he preceded her in death on October 3, 2015.

She taught at Washington School and for 30 years at Fillmore School for a total of 42 years before retiring. She loved traveling and taught school to U.S. students at the Army base in Izmir, Turkey.

Her memberships included: of Delta Kappa Gamma, Alpha Delta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Westside Assembly of God Church (Davenport), Muscatine and Scott County Genealogical Societies, NSDU, Royal Neighbors, DAR, Davenport Post #26 Auxiliary and the NEA. In her spare time she loved to play bridge, crochet, reading (especially Danielle Steel books), watching tv shows including MSNBC and CNN, board games and story -telling One unique thing about her with her love of genealogy is that together with her husband when they traveled, would go to various cemeteries and take pictures of monuments and add them to the “Find A Grave” website. They registered close to 10000 of them.

Those left to cherish her memory include her son Alan J. Plumb, Davenport, nieces and nephews and special friends Tim and Frances Work, Davenport.

In addition to her parents, husband Ken, and son, Kevin, Shirley was preceded in death by sister, Marilyn Baxter and brother, Virgil Braun.

In her lifetime, Shirley touched a lot of lives, and will be greatly missed by her family, friends, and students.