Juanita Riepe Skipton

Juanita Shelton Riepe, 98, of Vienna, Illinois, passed away Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Her family will receive guests during a visitation from 9:00 a.m. until 10:20 a.m., December 30, 2014 at the First United Methodist Church in Vienna. A Celebration of Life Service will then follow at 10:30 a.m. with the interment afterwards at the Vienna Fraternal Cemetery. Juanita was born on February 12, 1916 to her parents, the Reverend Roy and Mary Seawright Shelton, in the Vienna Township near present-day Tunnel Hill in Johnson County, Illinois. She graduated from Karnak High School and attended McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois. She met her husband-to-be, Russell C. Riepe, at Anderson Church in Boaz, Illinois. They were married on October 12, 1936 in Massac County. After Russell passed away in June of 1976, she lived alone on the family farm in the Pond Community for twenty years before marrying John Skipton (deceased), an attorney and former Director of Finance for the State of Ohio. For most of her life, Juanita taught elementary grades in a number of schools including Reevesville, New Columbia, Belknap, New Burnside, and New Simpson Hill, where she finally retired at the age of 70. An accomplished musician, she played the piano and organ, and for many years, she was the choral director at the First United Methodist Church in Vienna. She sang soprano and toured with the Southern Illinois University Oratorio Choir over a span of about three decades. Juanita was a poet and an avid reader with interests covering a wide array of topics, and she was particularly fond of the classics, theology, and philosophy. Owing to the Shelton family’s oral tradition, she could recite poems, stories, and sing songs by heart for hours at a time. The oldest of nine children, she was preceded in death by her parents, the Reverend Roy and Mary Shelton, and her siblings, Myra June Smith, Mary Ruth Cannon, Major James Roy Shelton (U.S. Army and Silver Star Recipient), Charles Warren Shelton, and Kathryn Sue Hull. A loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, teacher, and friend, her surviving next of kin include her son and his wife, Dr. Russell C. and Diana Pfannstiel Riepe; her grandchildren, Edward Russell and Mary Celeste Riepe; her sister, Helen Louise Knight; her sister-in-law, Lora Mae Shelton; and her two brothers and their wives, Wayne and Sonja Shelton and Dr. Robert McElroy and the Reverend Fran Shelton. Juanita’s surviving nephews and nieces and their families include the Reverend James and Maribeth McGuire, Major David (Chaplain, U.S. Army retired) and Nora Smith, Dr. Melissa Cannon, Joyce Shelton, Matthew and Susan Gore, Terry Knight, the Reverend Geoffrey and Rose Anne Knight, Donald and Harriette Shelton, Steven and Dabney Shelton, Lori Shelton, Nancy Shelton, Robert Daniel and Tara Shelton, Dr. David Shelton, Robert Allen Hull and Sarah James, Thomas Hull, Michael Hull and the Reverend Robert Gahler, Dr. James Robert and Diane Shelton, Rich and Tamara Shelton Mackasey, Ken and Sarah Coward, and Robert and Naomi Ford. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Roy and Mary Shelton Scholarship Fund at Bethel University, 325 Cherry Avenue, McKenzie, TN 38201 or the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001.

Juanita Riepe Skipton

February 12, 1916 - December 10, 2014