Ilene Norvell Rogers

Ilene Norvell Rogers was born on August 16, 1935 in Watch, KY. She was the quintessential “people person”, always genuinely interested in people and their life stories. After many health challenges over the past five years, Ilene left for Heaven on April 12, 2025.

Ilene was a homemaker and a volunteer (school, hospitals, church). She was an active member of University Baptist Church for over forty years. She and her husband, Tom, met and married in Cincinnati, Ohio. Together, they lived a true love story until his death after 56 years of marriage. Ilene was an avid reader and although she was afraid to fly, through reading, she felt she had been all over the world. She was interested in politics and kept up with the political news throughout her life. Ilene spent many years as a caregiver, for her mother and her beloved husband Tom. After Tom’s passing, Ilene shared her home with her sister Geneva. Ilene loved spending time with her daughters, Neva and Cathy, and her granddaughters, Emma and Christina. Although Ilene’s body failed her, her mind remained sharp and she was correctly answering quizzes only a day before her hospitalization. Ilene loved all her siblings, their spouses, her nieces and nephews and she kept up with their lives via letters, phone calls, and on Facebook. She had dear friends that she shared life with for decades, including neighbors in Ocean Springs, MS and Huntsville, AL.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas (Tom) Rogers and her parents, William (Bill) and Emma Norvell. As the youngest of seven children, she was preceded in death by all of her siblings and their spouses: Carrie Pennington (Jake), Martha Parton (Leslie), Lovella Norvell, Kenneth Norvell (Audrey), Harold Norvell (Juanita), and Geneva Norvell. Also preceding her in death were three nephews; David Norvell, Paul Norvell, and Dennis Pennington and one niece, Donna Wright.

Ilene is survived by her daughters, Neva Rogers Shuler (Mark), and Cathy Green; granddaughters Emma Green and Christina Ferguson (Michael), one great grandson, Luke Thomas Ferguson; and by eight nieces, three nephews, and her caregiver of the past two years, Sharon Whigham and other caregivers from Home Instead and Preferred Care at Home.

Visitation for Ilene Rogers will be held from 12PM - 2PM on Friday, April 18, 2025, at Valhalla Funeral Home and Memory Gardens. Her funeral service will follow at 2 PM. Rev. Bobby Burt will be officiating. Interment will follow at Valhalla Memory Gardens.

For those wishing to make a charitable donation in Ilene’s memory, please send donations to one of the causes she supported, the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, Liz Hurley Breast Cancer Fund or TD1 for type 1 diabetes research. Give Now - Huntsville Hospital Foundation or Make a Donation - BreakthroughT1D