Eunice Lee (Barry) Shank, always known as Lee, was born July 10, 1930, in Salina, Kansas, to Myrtle Esther (Gollehon) Barry and E. Lloyd Barry. Growing up in Emporia, she showed her intelligence and her independence from an early age. By nine, her father trusted her to carry his store's loan payments to the post office. She was musically gifted, playing piano at family weddings before she was in high school, practicing her own piano at home, tooting the clarinet in her high school marching band, and loving good jazz her entire life. She was proud of her occasional sidewalk conversations with William Allen White. The local radio station hosted a children's quiz program on Sunday afternoons. Lee's mother did not like for her to attend those shows, but she won it several times and enjoyed the Pepsi awarded to the winner. Her love of live theater started in the ninth grade, when she first worked props for a play. That love stayed with her throughout her life, driving her to drag her reluctant children to Starlight Theater every summer until they, too, learned to love it. Valedictorian of the 1948 class of Emporia High School, Lee spent one year at Texas State College for Women before transferring to Phillips University in Enid, where she majored in history with a minor in speech, graduating in July 1951. During her brief time at Phillips, she joined its famed debate team and worked on several plays. It was there that she got to know Lee Roy Shank, Jr., of Salina.

After graduation, Lee lived with friends for almost two years in San Francisco, working for New Zealand Insurance Company. "It was the only place I have ever lived where it was just a joy to get up and know I was there." After a year and a half, however, Lee Shank wanted her to "come home," and she soon obliged. They were married on August 14, 1953 and continued to live on the Air Force base in Amarillo, Texas for the next two years. There, they began to be known to their friends as "he-Lee" and "she-Lee," nick-names they retained throughout their time together. The couple had three children, Barry (b 1954), Leslie (b 1956), and Kevin (b 1958), while living in Syracuse, NY, and Wichita, KS before moving to Overland Park in 1959. They joined Christ Episcopal Church, where she-Lee remained as a member until the mid-1990s. She then joined St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church, where she was a lay reader and attended services the rest of her life as she could. He-Lee Shank became the news director for KCMO, a job he thrived in until he died too early in October, 1964. At that point, the surviving Lee Shank accepted the role that she felt God had given her and went to work.

Lee began by expanding her informal relationship with the Johnson County Juvenile Hall and starting their education remediation program for troubled youth. This program quickly developed a stellar reputation and other counties began asking her to teach their troubled young people on a case by case basis. She attended the University of Kansas for two years during summers and in the evenings, while raising her three children and continuing to work for Johnson County. When she completed her Master's degree in Special Education, she accepted a position as the first special education teacher in the newly opened Indian Creek Jr. High School. She transferred to Shawnee Mission West High School in the mid-70s and developed close friendships with other teachers at that school and across the school district. A firm believer in the importance of education and in the central value of the common good, she joined the Shawnee Mission branch of the National Education Association. A tough contract negotiator, she also served as President of that organization for the 1977-78 school year. She retired in 1997.

She loved to play bridge, especially the joy of the cleverly won trick, and passed on that love to her children who were not quite good enough to challenge her at bridge but enjoyed their own card games. She loved the major holidays, particularly Easter. Easter became a time for family and friends from across the state to come to her house, hunt in the bushes for small gifts, squirt each other with water guns, and play the annual whiffle ball game-a game which, in fine family tradition, the women always won. While living on her pension, she continued to give back to her community with her time and the donations she could afford. Fiercely independent to the end, insistently protective of her children and grandchildren-even long after they had grown into successful adults, Lee Shank turned her natural stubbornness into a super power that enabled her to succeed at everything she turned her hand to. She was a leader in every organization and a firm competitor on every team that she was a part of. She is survived by Barry, his wife, Shari Speer, and their child, Miles; Leslie Fisch, her daughter Amanda Gritzke (Kevin) and their two children, Brady (7), and Elliott (3); and Kevin, his wife, Danielle (Llewellyn), and their two daughters, Madison (28) and Kennedy (12).

Visitation and Services

Visitation will be from 4:00-6:00 p.m., Sunday, December 22, 2019, at Amos Family Funeral Home.   A Celebration of Lee’s life will be 11 a.m., Monday, December 23, 2019, at the funeral home.

Memorial Contributions

The family suggests memorial contributions be made to the Rose Brooks Center, P.O. Box 320599, Kansas City, MO 64132