Shirley (Kampfert) Bill

Last week was the 30th anniversary of my grandmother's death. Even after all this time I felt enough sadness that I had to wait to write this post. As a kid I realized that my parents were younger than many of my friends parents. One of the benefits of that was that I also had young grandparents. And yet I lost all of them well before most of my friends. I clearly remember the resentment I had for friends who had all of their grand parents, and in some cases great grandparents. Even worse were those kids who complained about "having" to visit those grandparents. What I wouldn't have given to be able to visit any of my grandparents. As I got older the resentment lessened, but if I'm honest it never really disappeared. But I did take a valuable lesson from it. The lesson there is that you never know what will happen. So we need to value every day we have with our loved ones. There may not be a chance to "cram for finals" at some later date. I was never more glad of that than when my father passed on shortly after a complicated birth of my daughter. Because of my own health issues I could not spend the time at the end that I would have liked. But because I had lived the life I had, I didn't have any "last minute" messages to give him. Would I have liked to spend more time with him? Of course. But I never felt like we had any unfinished business. Our relationship had almost always been pretty open and honest. But that's all a story for another post.
I have made no secret that not having the chance to know my grandparents that well is what spurred my interest in genealogy. What better time to begin my profile series than on this anniversary of my grandmothers passing. And who better to start with than the woman herself.

Shirley Kampfert was born to Margaret (Schiefelbein) and Arthur Kampfert on January 23, 1927 in Chicago Illinois. She was the third of five children. All were girls, Mildred, Evelyn, Shirley, Violet and Ethel all grew up on the south side of Chicago. Shirley made her first appearance in the US census in 1930 at the age of four when she lived at 4318 S. Fairfield. They lived on the second floor of the house owned by Margaret's parents Elenore (Radekopf) and Robert Schiefelbein. Ten years later a 14 year old Shirley was still living with her family on Fairfield. By then she was attending what was probably eighth grade at an unknown grade school. I do know that she went on to attend and graduate from Kelly High School and graduated in 1944 or 1945. She lived with her family on Fairfield until she married Louis Bill Jr. on May 19, 1951 at Peace Lutheran Church. They had five children, Connie, Charmian, Robert, Margaret and Arthur. Shortly after the birth of their first child they moved to a house at 6225 S. Natchez where they lived the rest of their short lives. Louis died February 22, 1977 and Shirley followed in 1983.

Shirley became a grandmother for the first time in 1971. She would be the grandmother of nine but only knew three of her grandchildren. She worked for some time at the Ben Franklin in the neighborhood and later as the church secretary at Messiah Lutheran Church on 62nd & Monitor also in Chicago. She always enjoyed easy listening music and often played it in the house. She also enjoyed sewing and was often found at her sewing machine making clothing for herself or a family member. Shirley was a loving person who I only wish I had known longer. She passed on April 11, 1983 at the age of 56.

If you have any information or memories to add, please do so in the comments of this post.