Miriam T. Tait

Miriam T. Tait
(September 4, 1979 – September 12, 2021)

Miriam Therese Tait , 42, of Shelbyville, IL, lost her war on cancer, Sunday, September 12, 2021. She passed in Decatur Memorial Hospital with her handfasted soulmate, Scott Sarafin, at her side.

A memorial service for family and friends will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, October 23, 2021 at Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville, IL with Darrell Best officiating. Guests are welcome to visit with the family following the service until 3:00 p.m.

Miriam was born September 4, 1979 in Davis-Monthan AFB Hospital, Tucson, AZ, to Patricia A. Tait and Michael W. Clendenen. She spent the early part of her childhood in Tucson and Orting, WA with her grandparents. She moved with her mother to Shelbyville at the age of 9 and spent the rest of her too brief life there. Miriam graduated from Shelbyville High School in 1997. She worked retail positions at the former County Market in Shelbyville while attaining her Associates in Arts Degree at Lake Land College, graduating in 2018. She was pursuing a Graphic Arts Degree from DeVry Technical Institute at the time of her death.

Miriam was an avid artist in varied media including acrylics, pencils, and spray paint. Her favored genre was “Space Art”. She participated in many local art shows and was a member of The Vault Collective in Tuscola. She was an animal lover and had interests in astronomy, science and all things natural. She adored Star Wars, Pokemon and Geocaching, reveling in the chase and capture.

She was preceded in death by her maternal and paternal grandparents, Bob and Anne Tait and Howard and Remona Clendenen.

Miriam is survived by her handfasted soulmate, Scott Sarafin. Also surviving are her parents, Patti and Milton Hendrickson and Mike and Laurie Clendenen; child, Serena Anne (Dean Xavier) Walters; step-son, Matthew Carroll; aunts and uncles, Miriam and Frankie Griswold and David and Angela Tait; cousins, Kevin and Barbara Perry, Matt and Brittany Tait, and Juan Bradford Tait; former spouse, Jerry Walters, and a host of friends in and around the community, including but not limited to special friends, Lisa Graham, Nikki Asahay, and Brooke Lowe.