Wileene Maud Shepherd (Small) died on May 5, 2021, four months shy of her 100th birthday. Born September 4, 1921, in Grapevine, Texas, to Wiley Herman Small and Emma Davis Small, she was the middle daughter of four children raised on land that is now part of Dallas Fort Worth Airport. A city girl at heart, she was delighted when, at age14, her grandmother determined that a young woman needed to live in Dallas and moved Wileene into her stately home on Gaston Avenue and enrolled her in Miss Ela Hockaday’s School putting a decisive end to her days on the farm.
She met Ernest Shepherd on a blind date in 1940. He was no society boy, but won her grandmother’s heart when, on one their dates, he repaired a broken water heater in one of her grandmother’s rental properties before taking Wileene and her grandmother out to dance. In 1942 Wileene found herself an army bride travelling to Seattle in advance of Dad’s deployment to Europe. On the way, he dropped her off in front of a hotel in San Francisco and asked her to rent a room for the night while he parked the car. Unaccustomed to the need to balance a checkbook, Mother spent one month’s paycheck at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, securing a room and giving Daddy a story he told often over the course of their 51 year marriage. He delighted in the fact that the Hockaday girl had chosen a regular guy; it was obvious to all that he remained smitten until his death in 1993.
After the war she greeted Ernest in Dallas with a new baby girl, and no place to live. The war had depleted the country of building materials and delayed housing starts so they bought six acres north of the city with room for others to build homes alongside. Mother designed their home after houses she had seen on the West Coast. But before there could be a house, there had to be a road, and there was no money in either the state or city coffers to build one.
So they built a road. He graded the land, while Wileene spread the gravel and caliche they had mined from a well as their baby girl played in the dirt and stone. And there, on Shepherd Road, they restarted a life deferred by war.
Two additional children and 20 years later, they moved to a home in Lakewood, about half a mile from the home on Gaston where her life changed and brought her, eventually, to all of us who loved her.
Wileene was preceded in death by her husband Ernest, her sister Frances and brothers Charles and John Small and her grandson Galen Shepherd. She is survived by daughter Theresa LaLaine Patterson (Michael) of Arlington, and sons Dawrl Ernest Shepherd of Dallas, and Carl Gordon Shepherd (Suzanne) of Austin, and grandchildren Kyle (Erin), Brent, and Emilee Patterson, and Connor (Nitasha), Kevin (Jen) and John Eamonn Shepherd, as well as five great grandchildren ranging in age from 8 to 19.
The family is forever indebted to the wonderful team at Freedom Care Palliative Hospice of Dallas, who took great care of our mother during her final weeks, and to our brother Dawrl, who welcomed her into his home eight years ago, and stayed by her side until the end.
Graveside viewing at 10:30 AM, May 10, 2021, at Grove Hill Memorial Park, 3920 Samuell Blvd, Dallas, Texas, with a remembrance event following at 11:00 AM. Covid Procedures; please wear a mask.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation to either an International Adoption Agency of your choice, or Adults Independent and Motivated, (https://www.aimtx.org/), which helps young adults with intellectual disabilities live independent lives.
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