Kathleen O'Dell

IN MEMORY OF: KATHLEEN O’DELL Serving Location: CRAIN PLEASANT GROVE-MURDALE FUNERAL HOME 31 Memorial Drive (Old Route 13), Murphysboro, Illinois Kathleen O’Dell, 81, of Shiloh, Illinois, passed peacefully from this life to life with her Savior September 30, 2022 with her family at her side. Kathy, known to many as KO, barely 5 feet tall, was a dynamo in a skirt and pumps. She handled assignments and challenges with unbridled energy and aplomb. Kathy began her career as a journalist, working for several smaller papers and then landing at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the Rocky Mountain News. In her later career, she led in marketing, public relations, and fundraising positions at Belleville Area College, now Southwestern Illinois College, most recently as Executive Director of the SWIC Foundation. She was proud of the extensive scholarship program she developed at the college and of the construction of the Schmidt Art Center, a project she willed to be done and it was. She had a place in her heart for those less fortunate, leading to her involvement with the Christian Activity Center, mission projects at her church, and the development of a non-profit organization that supported women and children. She loved kids and kids loved her. Kathy’s family will remember her as loving, kind, funny, and generous. She was a rock for others in tumultuous times; supportive and encouraging at every turn. Her nieces and nephews loved that she was the adult who always wanted to sit at the kids’ table at holiday dinners. KO’s colleagues at the college will remember her as a visionary who was always at her desk by 6AM. If she was going to be on a committee, she wanted to chair it. She was skilled at researching topics (way before Google) and with research in hand, she could prove to be a worthy adversary or a tremendous support to anyone’s position. Her friends know that she always wanted to be the first to try a new restaurant or experience. If you did it first without her, she wasn’t as interested in going. Her friends at Christ Church, where she was an active member will recall her as a willing volunteer, generous, and respectful of others. She enjoyed leading the charge to install stained glass windows in the sanctuary. Everyone who knew her would agree that she was always early for appointments, independent, honest, strong willed, loyal, a hard worker, and wasn’t afraid to call it like she saw it. KO was not known to sugarcoat the message. She was funny and had a quick sense of humor; she got a twinkle in her eye that foretold she was about to say something she thought was funny. Whether it be serving on a committee at church, a project at work, voice lessons, building her art collection, or running for the state senate in 1972, when she was “in,” she was all in. She was born in Donnellson, Illinois to parents, Lewis J.T. and Ruby nee Wilson O’Dell. Her parents, brother, Lewis and his wife Helen, as well as her brother-in-law Frank preceded her in death. She is survived by her sister Marilyn, her brother Kent and sister-in-law Rena, and many nieces and nephews and their families. Should you wish, memorials may be made to Christian Activity Center, Christ Church, the Kathy O’Dell Scholarship fund at SWIC or a charity of your choice. A private service will be held at a later date. Arrangements have been entrusted to Crain Pleasant Grove-Murdale Funeral Home. To view the obituary and/or to leave an online condolence for the family, please visit www.crainsonline.com.

Kathleen O'Dell

October 12, 1940 - September 30, 2022