Mona Margaret Moore
January 31, 1921 — July 21, 2005
Mona Willis-Moore, 84, died peacefully in her sleep on July 23, 2005 in Eureka Kansas. She had come home to Eureka after a well-lived life shared between Wichita and her family ranch near Utopia.
Born in Greenwood County to George B. and Verlinda Kirkpatrick, Mona went on to graduate from Eureka High School in 1940, and attended Chillicothe Business College where she learned secretarial skills. Off to help in the war effort, she was hired at Clarkson and Startz Aircraft Company in Wellington where she was soon to meet a handsome young pilot with winning ways- Wayne Willis. She eloped from Wellington and found herself honeymooning on a trout stream in Colorado with a marriage somewhere in the vicinity of Dodge City; followed by two colorful shiverees. The second one, back in Wellington, shut down the main highway and held up an army convoy for two hours. Mona held down the fort while Wayne fought the war in Europe including the Battle of the Bulge. Reunited after the war, Mona eventually persuaded Wayne to quit his Boeing day job and devote himself to the wildlife painting and carving hobby that eventually made him a nationally recognized artist. Even while running the Willis Wildlife Studio, Mona continued to work for much of her life in the oil industry as secretary and office manager for Cardwell Manufacturing and, later, Oasis Petroleum. She was a past president of both the Kansas National Secretaries and Oil Secretaries. However, she became an avid proponent for the interests of husband and daughters no matter where they took her, from Canadian Walleye Lakes, to Mexico, and the Moroccan Desert; and was an enthusiastic supporter of Ducks Unlimited and Quail Unlimited. In 1987, she was appointed by Governor Mike Hayden to the Kansas Arts Commission, serving the commission from 1989 to 1990. In that role, she traveled throughout Kansas and went to Washington to lobby Senator Dole for additional arts funding. Her special interest was the revival of small town theater groups. In 1993, she returned to Washington as a selection judge for the Federal Duck Stamp. Until recently, she has presented the Governor’s One-Shot Turkey Hunt landowner’s print each year since its inception. She loved dancing and was both the prime mover and a member or the first ever Old Cowtown Can-Can girls, and she would travel for miles to hear a good swing band.
Some years after Wayne’s death in 1991, she met and married James L. Moore. After a four- year honeymoon in a Country Coach RV, she returned to the Eureka of her youth. Mona was always open to adventure and one of whom it can truly be said- “she never met a stranger- at least not one for long.”
She is survived by her second husband James; daughters Toni Willis-Jackman of Eureka and Robyn Willis of Ridgeway Colorado; and by her little dog Heidi.
Services at Koup Family Funeral Home in Eureka, Friday, July 29 2005 at 11:00AM, followed by a gathering of friends and family at the Flying W Ranch.
Memorial Donations may be made to the Greenwood Foundation (for the restoration of the Greenwood Hotel) or to the Willis Scholarship Foundation (promoting education in Wildlife and Natural Resource Management.)
Born in Greenwood County to George B. and Verlinda Kirkpatrick, Mona went on to graduate from Eureka High School in 1940, and attended Chillicothe Business College where she learned secretarial skills. Off to help in the war effort, she was hired at Clarkson and Startz Aircraft Company in Wellington where she was soon to meet a handsome young pilot with winning ways- Wayne Willis. She eloped from Wellington and found herself honeymooning on a trout stream in Colorado with a marriage somewhere in the vicinity of Dodge City; followed by two colorful shiverees. The second one, back in Wellington, shut down the main highway and held up an army convoy for two hours. Mona held down the fort while Wayne fought the war in Europe including the Battle of the Bulge. Reunited after the war, Mona eventually persuaded Wayne to quit his Boeing day job and devote himself to the wildlife painting and carving hobby that eventually made him a nationally recognized artist. Even while running the Willis Wildlife Studio, Mona continued to work for much of her life in the oil industry as secretary and office manager for Cardwell Manufacturing and, later, Oasis Petroleum. She was a past president of both the Kansas National Secretaries and Oil Secretaries. However, she became an avid proponent for the interests of husband and daughters no matter where they took her, from Canadian Walleye Lakes, to Mexico, and the Moroccan Desert; and was an enthusiastic supporter of Ducks Unlimited and Quail Unlimited. In 1987, she was appointed by Governor Mike Hayden to the Kansas Arts Commission, serving the commission from 1989 to 1990. In that role, she traveled throughout Kansas and went to Washington to lobby Senator Dole for additional arts funding. Her special interest was the revival of small town theater groups. In 1993, she returned to Washington as a selection judge for the Federal Duck Stamp. Until recently, she has presented the Governor’s One-Shot Turkey Hunt landowner’s print each year since its inception. She loved dancing and was both the prime mover and a member or the first ever Old Cowtown Can-Can girls, and she would travel for miles to hear a good swing band.
Some years after Wayne’s death in 1991, she met and married James L. Moore. After a four- year honeymoon in a Country Coach RV, she returned to the Eureka of her youth. Mona was always open to adventure and one of whom it can truly be said- “she never met a stranger- at least not one for long.”
She is survived by her second husband James; daughters Toni Willis-Jackman of Eureka and Robyn Willis of Ridgeway Colorado; and by her little dog Heidi.
Services at Koup Family Funeral Home in Eureka, Friday, July 29 2005 at 11:00AM, followed by a gathering of friends and family at the Flying W Ranch.
Memorial Donations may be made to the Greenwood Foundation (for the restoration of the Greenwood Hotel) or to the Willis Scholarship Foundation (promoting education in Wildlife and Natural Resource Management.)
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