Nancy “Nano” Kieffer Stilgenbauer, age 85, born Feb. 16, 1934, died Jan. 1, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio.
Nancy was born in National City, California, on Feb. 16, 1934, to Sarah Virginia “Gigi” (Grider) and Clinton Edward Kieffer.
The family moved to St. Joseph in 1935, and she attended schools there, graduating from Central High School and St. Joseph Junior College (Missouri Western)
She sang in the school choirs. She was the first president of the St. Joseph Sweet Adelines Chorus, in 1959.
She worked as an international reservation service agent at TWA in Kansas City, Missouri in 1953, and at the Gas Service Company in St. Joseph, in 1954, before marrying Marvin R. Stilgenbauer Feb. 18, 1956, at the First Christian Church in St. Joseph, upon his return from the Korean war front; they were married 63 years. She then became a fulltime homemaker.
They lived in St. Joseph until 1963, moving to Kansas City that year, and then moving to Emporia, Kansas in 1964, then living in McPherson, Kansas, from 1964 to 1998, raising three daughters: Deb, Holly and Carey.
Nancy was a member of the First Christian Church, an elder in the church and a member of CWF, Christian Women’s Fellowship group.
She sang in the church choir and in the McPherson Community Choir and did solos; she loved to sing.
Her hobbies were: gardening, reading, knitting, collecting art and caring for her beloved cocker spaniel, Sam.
She has knitted afghans, numbering in the hundreds, for family and friends in nearly every state of the union and a few in Europe. She has knitted sweaters, shawls, scarves, gloves, stoles and hats for members of the family, and many baby shawls for friends and family.
In 1976, she returned to work, as the Administrative Secretary at McPherson Memorial Hospital, advancing to Materials Manager in 1980, and retiring from the hospital, in 1998.
She served as President of the Kansas State Material Management Society, in 1988.
She earned her Fellowship in the American Society for Hospital Material Management in 1989 and was awarded the Kansas Material Management Society Outstanding Service Award, in 1993.
She was a member of the Dianthian Sorority and The Pan Hell Association in high school and served as president of both groups.
She was a member of the Epsa Sigma Alpha sorority in McPherson and was president of that organization, in 1974.
She served as a Campfire Girls leader for three years and was a member of the Twentieth Century Club in McPherson, serving as president in 1969.
She retired from McPherson Hospital, in 1998.
Both Nancy and Marvin retired in Lenexa, Kansas.
In June of 2019, she moved to Dublin, Ohio, with her dog, Sam to reside with her eldest daughter, Deb Miller.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Marvin, in Jan. 2019.
She is survived by: her daughters: Deb Miller (Jeff) of Dublin and daughter, Jamie Miller, Holly Miller of Morgan Hill, California and children: Aaron Miller (Tiffany and children, Trey and Myles), Sarah Miller (Toni), Bradley Miller, David Miller, and Carey Bauer Buckler of Weston, Missouri and son, Lane Buckler.
The family will hold a celebration of life in St. Joseph, in the spring of 2020, with a footstone placed with her parents, at Memorial Park Cemetery in St. Joseph.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the McPherson Museum and Arts Foundation (mcphersonmuseum.com) or the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery (sandzen.org). As published in the St. Joseph News-Press.
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