Kala Janice McIntosh

Kala was born January 8, 1938, at St. Mary’s Hospital to E. Leslie and Mary K. (Bracken) Miller. Kala attended Decatur schools and completed her GED later in life. She married Gary D. Gilleland of Dallas, Texas in July 1957, an airman and meteorologist in the US Air Force. They lived near Air Force bases in Ft. Worth, TX and Sedalia, MO with their children, Don and Kala, until they divorced. Kala married Robert McIntosh in April 1966 and lived in the Decatur area until 1983. She was widowed in 1986 and retired as a bank manager from Bank of America in Irving, TX after 25 years in banking. After retirement she lived in Park Ridge, IL (Chicago suburb) and Stockbridge, GA (Atlanta suburb) until returning to Decatur in 2017 to care for her mother who passed at the age of 101 years. Kala was adored by all and blessed with many friends and close family who knew her as “Snooks” or “Jan.” She was an avid seamstress, making, tailoring and repairing clothes since she was a young girl.

She is survived by her son Don and his wife Cat McIntosh of Fruita, Colorado and daughter Kala McIntosh Vargas of Flower Mound, TX, uncle Donald and his wife Marilyn Bracken of Mechanicsburg, IL, cousin Phillip Bracken of St. Louis County, MO, cousin Craig and his wife Lisa Bracken of Harristown, IL, cousins Sandy (Miller) Barbee and Steve and Mark Miller of Texas, cousin Lavon and her husband Joe Fromm of Decatur, IL, cousins Dan, Lee and Andrew Baker of Southern CA, nephew Greg and his wife Lena Mayberry of Decatur, IL, niece Tina and her husband Gerald Simons of Winfield, MO, five grandchildren, two step grandchildren, six great grandchildren.

Kala passed peacefully in the early morning of October 21, 2025, in hospice care at HopeWest Colorado. She chose cremation and celebration of life in Grand Junction, Colorado followed by a private ceremony at Friends Creek Cemetery in Argenta, IL where she will be memorialized near her family there. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to HopeWest in Grand Junction, CO

(https://www.hopewestco.org/donate/).