Billie Ivah Isabelle Kersey Saner

Billie Ivah Isabelle Kersey Saner, age 90, passed away on July 9, 2014 at Shawnee Gardens Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Shawnee, Kansas. She was in the care of KC Hospice. She was surrounded by her children, family, and close friends.

Billie was born on November 11, 1923, the first child of Albert and Agnes Kersey of Augusta, Kansas, in Butler County. At age 3, the family moved to El Dorado, Kansas. Billie attended the El Dorado public schools from Kindergarten through one year of Butler County Junior College. She graduated from El Dorado High School in 1941, a member of the National Honor Society. She later completed her education with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Kansas.

On October 25, 1942, Billie married Ralph M. Saner at the El Dorado Church of the Nazarene where they continued to be faithful members for years. All five of their children, James Russell, Thomas Edward, Linda Ruth, Margaret Lynette, and Mary Katherine, were born in El Dorado’s Susan B. Anthony Memorial Hospital. In 1951, the family moved and lived in Anthony, Iola, Humboldt, Wichita, and Hutchinson, Kansas.

Before moving to the Kansas City area in 1958, Billie taught school in Butler County. Then the family moved and made their home in Merriam, Kansas. She continued teaching elementary school in Johnson and Wyandotte County. After teaching for several years, she became a State of Kansas social worker. In the early 1980’s, after her husband, Ralph’s retirement from International Harvester, they moved to Jacksonville, Florida. In 1990 they moved to Sandersville, Georgia. After her husband’s death, Billie continued to maintain her legal residence in Georgia. As she developed health issues, she moved to Shawnee, Kansas in order to be near her two sons.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Agnes Henson Kersey, and Albert Russell Kersey; two brothers, James Arthur Kersey and John Albert Kersey; one sister Olive Eileen Kersey; her husband Ralph Menno Saner; and her second daughter, Margaret Lynette Saner Kevern.

She is survived by her two sons, James Russell Saner, and wife, Elaine; Thomas Edward Saner and wife, Esther, both of Shawnee, Kansas, and their families. She is also survived by two of her three daughters, Linda Ruth Saner Sharp Newmann, and her son and family of Jacksonville, Florida; Mary Katherine Saner Campbell Sgromolo and her husband John, and daughters, of Riverview, Florida. She leaves a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, all who loved her and knew her as Granny.

Visitation will be at 10:00 am with the services at 11:00 am on Friday, July 11th at McGilley & Hoge Funeral Home, 8024 Santa Fe Dr., Overland Park, KS. She will be peacefully laid to rest next to her loving husband of 50 years at Holly Hill Memorial Gardens in Middleburg, Florida.

In lieu of flowers, please make any contributions in her name to: Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, 17001 Prairie Star Parkway, Lenexa, KS 66204.