Louise Shambaugh

Claire Louise McLain Shambaugh

Louise Shambaugh, 91, passed peacefully to another dimension on Dec. 23, 2018 at Tallgrass Creek in Overland Park, Kansas.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, January 10, 2018 at Firestone Chapel in the Church of the Resurrection (Building B), 13720 Roe Avenue, Leawood, Kansas.  All are welcome.

Louise was born in 1927 in Burlington, Iowa, the daughter of Claire Cornelia (Shaw) McLain and William Harvey McLain III.  She spent her childhood, together with younger brother Bill (William H. McLain IV), in Chicago, Illinois, where their father taught chemistry, and she graduated from Hirsch High School in 1944.  A member of the National Honor Society, at age 16 she began her studies at DePauw University, finding a welcoming home in the Delta Zeta sorority and graduating in 1948 with a Bachelor's degree in Botany.  She worked summers during college and returned to Chicago to work at Marshall Field department store after graduation.

She met her future husband Dick Shambaugh on a blind date and they were married in February 1949.  Louise taught as a substitute at the high school level for a year, then worked at the Aircraft Radiation Laborartory of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio until 1954, advancing from clerk-typist to accounting clerk.  After the birth of their first child, Ronald, she and Dick moved to Vestal, New York, where a house and two more children established her firmly in the business of homemaking.  She actively volunteered in many organizations, including the PTA, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, Endicott Women's Club, YWCA, and church Women's Society.

She developed an avid interest in historical research and embarked on the extensive project of documenting the history of all place names in New York State.  Spurred by her mother's involvement in the Daughters of the American Revolution and Magna Charta Dames, she dove into genealogical research as her primary life's work, following lines back hundreds of years and generating many file drawers full of her findings.

In the 1970s Dick was diagnosed with leukemia and the family moved to Fairfax, Virginia.  His death in 1978 took a toll on Louise and her children, and drove her back into the workforce.  She spent a decade at Sears & Roebuck, in telephone sales of appliance maintenance agreements.

Later in life she supplemented her study of history with international trips, visiting Turkey, Egypt, Ireland, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Scotland, and England.  Always a passionate reader and traveler, and always self-directed and independent, she bore gracefully and bravely the gradual loss of both her eyesight and mobility.  In 2009 she moved to Tallgrass Creek retirement community where she enjoyed the company of many good neighbors until congestive heart failure finally brought this strong woman to her rest.  Her brother Bill had passed less than a day before she did, and some comfort can be taken that neither had to mourn the other.

Louise was preceded in death by her husband Richard S. Shambaugh, son Ronald L. Shambaugh, and brother William H. McLain IV. She is survived by daughters Pat Spring (and her husband Ken Olson) of Kansas City, Missouri and Sue Shambaugh (and her husband Thomas Holtz, Jr.) of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, as well as beloved nieces and nephews of both the McLain and Shambaugh families.

At a later date, Louise's ashes will join those of her husband Richard at Arlington National Cemetery.

Louise contributed generously to many charitable organizations whose work focused on the natural world and social justice.  If family and friends so desire, memorial donations may be made to The Nature Conservancy, Southern Poverty Law Center, Ocean Conservancy, or National Wildlife Federation.