Kathryn E. Shappley's Obituary
Kathryn Billingsley Shappley, age 90, departed this life on Friday, January 6, 2017, at her home. Visitation and graveside services were held January 10 at Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. Mrs. Shappley was born near Forrest City, Arkansas, on August 30, 1926. She was the youngest of four, and the third daughter of Kathryn Clark Billingsley and William Robert Billingsley. Her family moved to Memphis, Tennessee where she met and married her husband, Arnold Shappley, Jr., in 1944. After World War 2, they lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then returned to Memphis for him to join George Mahan as a partner in their architectural firm. She was employed by Bruce Floor company before starting a family. After that time, she became a homemaker. She is survived by her three adult children: Kenneth Shappley and his wife, Kim; William Shappley and his wife, Lisa; and Kathryn Bryson and her husband, Charles. She has two grandchildren: Jessica Shappley and Ben Bryson. Her husband, Arnold Shappley, passed away in 2010, just a few months before their 66th wedding anniversary. Their first child, Arnold Shappley III, died at the age of one month. Her brother, Clark Billingsley of Memphis, TN, and sisters, Wilma Griffin of Somerville, TN, and Blanche Moore of Merced, CA, also preceded her in death. Mrs. Shappley was an active member of Berclair Church of Christ and in later years a member of Macon Church of Christ in Fayette County, Tennessee. She lived in Fayette County in the home she built with her husband in 1992.
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