Cecilia E. Boone

Cecilia completed her remarkable journey through this world on June 24, 2013 to join her Heavenly Father and her husband Daniel (who preceded her in death in September 2005) for that streetcar ride through eternity, as he promised.

She was born Sept. 26, 1927, in Boonville, Mo., to Ray and Magdalena Vanderhoof, who preceded her in death, as did five of her six sisters, Bonita Lillis, Theresa Vanderhoof, Nira Vanderhoof, Rachel Willoughby and Winona Ludgate. She leaves one sister, Helen Gaschen of Perry, Kan., and a brother, Ray Henry Vanderhoof, of Kansas City, MO.

Cecilia was a member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Shawnee since 1957. She met her husband at Hall Brothers, Inc., now Hallmark Cards, where they worked until their marriage in April 1950. She was a member of the St. Joseph PTA and the Ladies Guild, and sang in the church choir for 35 years.

From 1963 to 1972, she was a Campfire Girls leader for two groups of girls at St. Joseph Grade School. She was an avid cake baker and candy maker, and her love of gardening and growing flowers were her main activities in her greenhouse.

This simple, devout servant of God, who was once told by medical specialists that she would never bear children, leaves behind her nine "miracles": Daughter Patrice Marie Stills and husband Rick, of Rathdrum, Idaho; daughter Judith Ann Boone of Shawnee; son Dennis Joseph Boone of Kansas City, Mo.; daughter Mary Rose Barnett of the home; son Timothy Raymond Boone and wife Terri of Henderson, Nev.; son Theodore Francis Boone and wife Penni of Bonner Springs; daughter Susan Louise Lott and husband David of Shawnee; son Paul Jerome Boone and wife Patty of Olathe, Ks.; and son Joseph Daniel Boone and wife Angie of Shawnee. Cecilia and Dan also had 29 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

A joint visitation-funeral Mass is scheduled for Thursday morning at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Shawnee. The visitation will run from 9:30-11 a.m., followed immediately by the funeral Mass. Burial will be next to Dan at Resurrection Cemetery in Lenexa.

If you really want to know Cecilia's character at its core, you'll see it reflected in some of her favorite words of wisdom she retained over the years:

"And I will not be lonely, wherever I may be,

For you'll be there in spirit when I ship out to sea.

But when the storm is over and gray skies turn to blue,

I want you to be waiting when I come home to you."

— author unknown

I Matter Not.

It does not matter where I end, or what becomes of me,

But only what I do on earth, to help humanity.

Because my duty is to live in that unselfish way

That will encourage other souls to know a better day.

To do my very utmost by whatever means I can,

And prove myself a brother true to every fellow man.

My name is not important now, or anything I do,

Except as I may draw a smile, or paint a sky of blue.

For I am just a minor part of one community,

And only as I serve my God will He remember me.

— James J. Metcalfe

What Makes Sense

"When I reach the end of my days, a moment or two from now, I must look back on something more meaningful than the pursuit of houses or land or stocks and bonds. I will consider my earthly existence to have been wasted unless I can recall a loving family, a consistent investment in the lives of people, and an earnest attempt to serve the God that made me. Nothing else makes much sense."

Please join her many descendants in marking this, the end of a life well-lived-and a reunion beyond the stars, as Cecilia and Dan take that streetcar ride into infinity.