Lois M Gordon

Funeral services will be 11:00 a.m. Friday in Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville with Rev. Kevin Ray officiating. Visitation from 5:00-7:30 p.m. Thursday. Burial will be in Glenwood Cemetery, Shelbyville. Memorials may be given to the First Christian Church, 202 S. Broadway, Shelbyville, Illinois 62565.

Lois was born in Shelby County, near Stewardson, Illinois, on November 13, 1906, the second of seven children born to Orpha Almeda Friesner and Thomas Leslie Tate. She married Elmer Edward (Bud) Gordon on October 31, 1931 and he passed away on May 29, 1987. An interesting thing is that Lois and her older sister, Inez, married brothers, Bud and Lawrence Gordon. They each had one daughter born three months apart and all lived together for many years. She worked very hard all her life, doing domestic work for a number of prominent Shelbyville families, including Hulick’s Clinic and for Dr. R.H. Larson. She had to quit school in the 7th grade to help provide for her siblings. In her earlier days, she worked for Edith and Ross Wellbaum in their broom corn factory in Mattoon, Illinois, sorting broom corn to make brooms. She was baptized in the First Christian Church, 202 S. Broadway, Shelbyville, Illinois in 1924 (member for 84 years) and loved her church. She loved to play the three “B’s”, bingo, bunco and blitz.

Surviving are her daughter, Betty Jean Dawkins of Shelbyville; grandson, Dr. Fritz E. Lower and wife Monica of Rochester; and sister, Vera Corley of Pana. Also surviving are special niece, Janet Strohl and husband Arnold; brother-in-law, Charles Martin, Sr. and sister-in-law, Vivian Tate all of Shelbyville.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; sisters, Inez Gordon and Ruth Martin; and three brothers, Harley, Clarence “Jack” and Clifford “Priff” Tate.