Vernilea Fuhlage
Services for Vernilea Fuhlhage, 79, Tonganoxie will be 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, at United Methodist Church, Tonganoxie. Graveside services will be 3 p.m. at Quincy Cemetery, Quincy.
Mrs. Fuhlhage died Monday, Feb. 21, 2011.
She was born Dec. 2, 1931, in Yates Center, the daughter of G. Fred Shaw and Faye I. (Holderman) Shaw. She was raised in Quincy and graduated from Quincy High School. She attended Emporia State Teachers College, earning a degree in elementary education, and later received a master’s degree in education from Colorado State College.
Mrs. Fuhlhage taught grade school in El Dorado, Toronto, Kan., and Sublette. She retired in 1997 after 47 years of teaching.
She was active in Delta Kappa Gamma, United Methodist Women, PEO, Tonganoxie Historical Society and was a 50-year member of the Finney County Chapter of Eastern Star in Garden City. She was also a member of Tonganoxie United Methodist Church.
She was married four times and preceded in death by three husbands. She married Paul E. Thayer in 1951, and they made their home in Quincy. In 1965, she married Claron E. Adams, residing in Macksville and Sublette. In 1984, she married Victor C. Willson. They made their home in Sublette. In 1998, she married Donald W. Fuhlhage and he survives of the home.
Other survivors include two sons, Kevin P. (Jean Ann) Thayer, Chanhassen, Minn., and M. Shawn (Tonya) Thayer, Olathe; five stepchildren, Teresa Bontrager, Santa Maria, Calif., Gary Willson, Knoxville, Tenn., Dee Dee Oelke, Springfield, Mo., Dwayne Fuhlhage, Olathe, and Michael Fuhlhage, Auburn, Ala.; five grandchildren; 11 stepgrandchildren; and 18 stepgreat-grandchildren.
The family suggests memorials to Della Lamb Community Services, sent in care of Quisenberry Funeral Home, Box 993, Tonganoxie, KS 66086.