STAUFFER, Eileen (Smith) (Cude) - b. November 26, 1923 - d. March 3, 2012

[patyrn]

Eileen (Smith) (Cude) Stauffer, age 88, passed away Saturday, March 3, 2012 at the Pleasant Valley Manor in Sedan, Kansas.  Eileen Smith was born November 26, 1923 in a farmhouse between Moline and Grenola, Kansas to parents, Clio and Ella Smith.

She attended grade school and high school in Moline, graduating in 1939 at the age of 15.  She attended the University of Kansas, majoring in Bacteriology and graduating at the age of 19.  She later moved to Tacoma, Washington where she took a paid internship as a medical technician.  In those days, paid internships for women were unheard of.  However, laboratory technicians were needed to manage the care of the wounded from the World War II Pacific Theater brought into the Seattle/Tacoma area.

After working in Tacoma for two years, she worked in Phoenix, Arizona for a year and then moved on to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California where she worked in a clinical lab in Beverly Hills.  It was her job to make house calls on celebrities to perform laboratory work.  Some of her notable patients were Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, William Randolph Hearst, Ann Baxter, Red Skelton, Judy Garland, and Van Johnson.

While in Santa Monica, Eileen met a local landscaper named Jim Cude.  They fell in love and married in Las Vegas in 1946.  When a new law was enacted requiring landscapers to be licensed, Jim felt his lack of education would prevent him from obtaining the license.  As a result, in 1948, Jim and Eileen decided to move back to Southeast Kansas and purchase a small greenhouse and retail flower shop; so the history of Sedan Floral began.

Eileen and Jim's Sedan Floral was a team effort.  Jim ran the wholesale and Eileen handled the retail shop.  For the next forty years, Eileen adorned prom dresses with elegant corsages, brides and weddings with floral extravaganzas, and even the churches and funeral homes were filled with beautiful floral tributes.  Everyone in town and from towns near and far remember the wonderful Christmas Open Houses with tens of thousands of poinsettias as well as the spring abundance of bedding plants that brightened our houses and businesses.

After 23 years of marriage, Jim died unexpectedly in 1969, leaving Eileen to forge ahead with both the retail and wholesale businesses.  Jim had been an active farmer and had a great deal of farm machinery.  Eileen did not want to continue the farming operation, so she decided to hire an auction company to liquidate the equipment.  The handsome and charming Andy Focht was the auctioneer who came to the rescue.  They became friends and later married in 1971. They were together for twenty years until Andy passed away in late 1990.

High school reunions for Moline High School were always a springtime highlight for Eileen.  She enjoyed meeting her old friends again and getting reacquainted.  In 1992, Howard Stauffer from Grenola, Kansas, an old boyfriend during high school, came back for his class reunion.  Eileen and Howard began dating, and two years later they married.  Oh how they loved to dance!  They jitterbugged their way across the next ten years until Howard's death in 2004.

Although her health failed in her last years, Eileen never stopped enjoying life and pursuing her hobbies.  She enjoyed reading and was an avid sports fan.  She loved to visit with friends and was never seen without a fresh hairdo, lipstick, and perfume.  She was a gracious lady.

Eileen is survived by four children:  Cheri, Greg, Garry, and Lori Cude; six grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and a host of loving friends.

Cremation has taken place, and a memorial service will be held March 9, 2012 at the First United Methodist Church in Sedan with Reverend Jerry Bever officiating.  A private inurnment will follow at a later date.

(published in the Prairie Star - 3/14/2012)