Shirley Drusilla Reeder, 93, of Overland Park, KS, passed away October 17, 2020, at Good Samaritan Society nursing home, Olathe, KS. A private graveside service will be held with burial at Mount Moriah cemetery, Kansas City, MO. Memorial contributions may be made to the National Breast Cancer Foundation or Good Shepard Hospice.
Shirley was born October 9, 1927, in Kansas City, MO, in a home at 43rd and Jefferson St. Her parents, Clarence and Ethel Brown, eventually ran a small grocery and BBQ restaurant with a home in the back of the store at 77th and Troost, where Shirley and her sisters grew up. Even though it was the time of the Great Depression, Shirley always remembered those years fondly.
She met her sweetheart, Donald Reeder, while working together at Electric Products Company in downtown Kansas City. After dating for a year, they married in 1951 and eventually moved to Overland Park. Shirley enjoyed bookkeeping and began her career working at Keystone Automotive Warehouse (later Carl Anderson Automotive) retiring in 1987. Shirley and Don owned Circle Auto Parts Store, Bonner Springs, KS, and she continued to maintain the books for that store until closing in 1998.
Shirley and Don enjoyed Sunday drives, looking for interesting antique shops, their property at the Lake of the Ozarks where Don grew up, and international trips to Rio de Janeiro, London and Amsterdam. Shirley was a wonderful cook and enjoyed preparing holiday meals with extended family. She loved crosswords and puzzles. Her analytical abilities enabled her passion of drawing up home remodeling plans for family members. She loved to reimagine spaces for improvements, especially when her ideas were realized. Shirley’s other passion was book reading. From childhood until she passed, Mom could always be found with a good book in her hands.
Shirley was preceded in death by her parents; two sisters; her husband; and oldest daughter, Beverly Ann Reeder. She is survived by two children, Barbara (Charles) Stoker and Steven Reeder; two granddaughters, Kelly (Travis) Bastien and Katherine (Bradly) Moore; and three great-grandchildren, Zachary, Vincent and Lillian. Mom was always a source of advice for her family and we will miss her gentle, loving soul.
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