Jean Dill

Jean Dill, 79, most recently of Kansas City, Missouri, passed away March 6, 2011 after a long illness. She was born June 25th, 1931 in Paris, Arkansas to Velma and Willie Cleveland (W.C.) Davis. After graduating from high school in Paris, Jean attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and received a degree in social work. In 1954, Jean married Stephen Dill, whom she loved with steadiness and patience for more than fifty years.

In addition to Arkansas and Kansas City, Jean lived in Sheridan WY, where she was employed as a social worker, explored the outdoors and became an avid tent camper; in Vermillion SD, where she served as a leader in the League of Women Voters, advocated for the schools, worked as an office manager and secretary, earned a second Bachelor’s degree, and raised her children to be independent-minded; and in Lawrence KS, where she pursued her interests in genealogy and travel, continued playing the piano, and enjoyed the company of a circle of talented and original friends. Jean also lived and traveled in London and the UK during her husband’s university sabbaticals. Throughout her life, Jean was a person of principles, self-discipline and independence. She valued fairness and could not abide hypocrisy, dishonesty or exploitation. She considered her father a model to emulate, admired her brothers, and loved her family. Her friends relied on her strength, forthright nature and loyalty. In recent years, although she was frustrated by memory problems, she maintained her good humor and appreciated the help she received from the people around her.

Jean was preceded in death by her parents and three of her brothers – Paul, Clark and Warner Davis. She is survived by her husband, who took good care of her in the last years of her life and who was with her when she died; a brother, Robert, of Knoxville AR, all of her four children; David Dill, of Redwood City CA; John Dill, of Kansas City MO; Cameo Flood, of Missoula MT, and Stephen Dill, of Mountain View CA. She is also survived by four grandchildren, all with great potential, who, in their own ways, show something of their grandmother’s independence.