Eileen K. Stiff, 97, of Olney and formerly of Dundas, died at 12:38 a.m. Tuesday, November 19, 2013, at Brookstone Estates.

Funeral services at Summers-Kistler Funeral Home in Olney with Reverend Jeremy Henson officiating.  Burial at Crest Haven Memorial Park in rural Claremont.

Eileen K. Stiff, daughter of Edgar and Laura (Wiles) Kermicle, was born June 30, 1916, near Dundas, Illinois. She attended Dundas Grade School, Newton and Olney high schools, and Eastern Illinois Teachers College. Eileen's first term teaching, near Brush College in 1937, was in a class of eight boys and girls.

She married Robert Charles Stiff on September 3, 1942, in St. Charles, Missouri, in the home of retired Methodist minister Rev. R.M. Hardaway. From a photo in her 50th anniversary album, the couple's first home "of four days" was a single-room dwelling about the size of a one-car garage. It had no windows: Things were sparse for the trainees. From September 1942, to January 1, 1944, when Robert left for the Pacific, she moved with him from Fort Crook, Nebraska, to Texas and finally back to Illinois. She worked at Kroger and then taught at Cherry Street School while Robert was in the war.

The couple returned to the home Robert had built for his "intended" on the farm a mile east of Dundas where they raised two sons and milked Jersey cattle. Eileen gardened of necessity but she loved to raise roses. For a time, she tested plantings for Jackson Perkins.

In November of 1993, Bob and Eileen moved to Olney. Eileen was a member of the Dundas Methodist Church until it closed in 1973, then transferred membership to Immanuel Methodist Church in Olney.

Eileen was an avid genealogy researcher. She compiled her work, "John Taylor Kermicle - His Ancestors and Descendants," on her manual typewriter. At the end of the book, Eileen wrote a dedication to her Grandma Kate. "… She proved to be a "farmer's wife.' She saw the hardships that were an expected part of pioneer life. She was a very sturdy individual and always trying to be helpful. ... She raised her children in a good Christian home, these principles helping to carry them through many "dark days.'" The words are a fitting epitaph for the granddaughter.

She is survived by a son, Michael (Barbara) Stiff, of Savoy; one grandson, Jason (Amy) Stiff, of Pawnee; great-granddaughters, Christina and Lauren Jo, of Pawnee; and her grandson Brian's widow, Julie Stiff, and great-grandsons, Kevin and Brandon, of Lyons, Colo.

Eileen was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Robert (August 22, 2013); sisters, Marie Wilson, Dorothy Phillips, and Mabel Graves; brother Don Kermicle, and grandson, Brian Stiff.

Published in Olney Daily Mail (IL) ~ November 20, 2013