Shirley Geraghty

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PAST GUESTBOOK SIGNINGSShirley Amelia Geraghty, fun-loving aunt, sister and friend to many, died Friday at the St. Luke?s Hospice House in Kansas City, Mo. She was 89.Shirley loved children, the water and flowers. She would always spend her weekends on those three things. Nephew Dan DeFeo, when a toddler, called her his ?fairy godmother.? And she was ? to all of us. She lived for a time at Lake Lotawana and Raintree Lake, always wanting to be near the relaxing water ? but not necessarily in it.Shirley was never a cook. An oft-repeated family story about her culinary expertise was her use of an iron to make grilled-cheese sandwiches. Shirley loved hearing that story. The one thing Shirley had, in spades, was a sense of humor. She graduated from Glennon High School in 1944 and attended Avila University (then known as St. Teresa?s) for two years. But life was calling, so she went to work. Shirley was smart and hardworking, employed by three companies ? Sears, Great Lakes Pipeline and Yellow Freight. In all of them, she was a pioneer for women in IT, working in the companies? computer departments beginning in the 1940s. She retired from Yellow Freight in the 1990s, a manager of the department. She is survived by the family she always had at the lake house: sister Patricia Clark and her husband Frank, their children Angela Clark Hurlock, Frank ?Murphy? Clark and Matthew Clark; her sister Marilyn DeFeo, her husband Lou DeFeo, and their children, Mary Patricia Storms, David DeFeo, Daniel DeFeo, Andrew DeFeo, Aless DeFeo Hall, Thomas DeFeo and Benjamin DeFeo; her nieces Debra Geraghty, Coleen Drinkard, Susie Miller, and Paula Ingersoll; her niece Maribeth Wilson Collier and nephew Jonathan Wilson; and nephew Mike Geraghty and niece Michelle Schmidt; and many great-nieces and -nephews, friends and family too numerous to list but not forgotten. Visitation begins at 10 a.m. with funeral at 11 a.m. June 9 at St. Peter?s Church, 6415 Holmes Rd, Kansas City, Mo., followed by burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery and Mausoleum, 7601 Blue Ridge Blvd., Raytown, Mo. Donations may be made to St. Luke?s Hospice House (saintlukesgiving.org/hospice) or St. Peter?s Church (stpkc.com).