Edis Jean (Sheik) Winchell

Edis Jean (Sheik) Winchell, age 91, of Axtell, KS, died at her home on Friday, January 16, 2015. Visitation was Tuesday, January 20, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Axtell-Landreth Funeral Home in Axtell. A funeral service was held at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, January 21, at the United Methodist Church in Axtell. Rev. Shirley Edgerton officiated. Lila Alfers was the organist. Music included “How Great is Thy Faithfulness”, “Remember Me" written by Annette (Winchell) Farrior, and “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow”. The pallbearer were Dale Shirley, Allen Pokorny, Chet Koester, Kyle Winchell, Jeremy Brandt and John Duncanson. Burial was in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Axtell. Edis was born on August 15, 1923 in Crab Orchard, NE, to James Douglas Sheik and Edna Fay (Waidely) Sheik. Her father operated a hardware store in Crab Orchard and was also a mortician. In 1930, he moved his family and business to Bern, KS, where he did plumbing, heating and his own tinwork. Edis grew up there and graduated from Bern High School in 1940. She attended a summer program at the National Business Institute in Lincoln, NE. Her first job was as a telephone operator in Bern where she worked for the Alma Freiburg House. Edis then moved to Seneca, KS, where she worked at the Selective Service office and learned to play bridge at a two-table bridge club. Later she moved to Augusta, KS, and worked at Beechcraft in Wichita. On January 20, 1944 Edis married Hollis Rex Winchell at the Park Temple Methodist Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where Hollis was stationed in the Navy. Edis worked in Charles Lindford's CPA office there and later in the office of an oil company when they moved to Corpus Christi, TX. When the war ended in 1945, Edis returned to her husband's home town in Pawnee City, NE, where they raised their three children and lived until 1968. She and her family were members of the Presbyterian Church in Pawnee City, and Edis was an inactive member of the Eastern Star. She worked in the County Treasurer's office and Welfare office for a number of years. While there, the family also learned to play golf and fish. Edis loved to golf, and she and her daughters won numerous golf trophies at the surrounding ladies invitationals. She continued to play golf until she was 89 years old. When the Farmers State Bank in Pawnee City, where Hollis worked, was sold in 1968, the family moved to Glen Elder, KS. Both Edis and her husband worked in the Traders State bank there. In 1970, the family moved to Axtell, KS, when her husband, Hollis, and her brother, Jim Sheik, bought the State Bank of Axtell. Edis worked at the bank in Axtell until retiring in 1997. She served on the Board of Directors for many years. Edis joined the United Methodist Church in Axtell where she continued to be active until her recent illness. She belonged to the Hi-Low Bridge Club and served on the local Library Board. She and her husband also belonged to the Seneca Golf Club. Preceding her in death were her parents, James and Edna; her two brothers, Richard and Jimmy; her daughter-in-law, Loretta Winchell; and her husband Hollis. She is survived by her three children; son, Kim Winchell of Axtell and daughters Kathy (Allen) Pokorny of Osage Beach, MO, and Vicki Winchell of San Dimas, CA. Also surviving are eight grandchildren, Carissa (Dale) Shirley of Vermillion, KS; Holly (Jeremy) Brandt of Frankfort, KS; Hope (Chet) Koester of DuBois, NE; Kami (Ben) Hirons of Phoenix, AZ; Kyle Winchell of Manhattan, KS; Ashley (John) Duncanson of Gardner, KS; Kyra (Anthony) Barbosa of Phoenix, AZ; Kelsey Pokorny of Osage Beach, MO; and seventeen great grandchildren. A memorial fund has been established and designated to the United Methodist Church. Contributions may be sent in care of the Axtell-Landreth Funeral Home. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Edis Jean (Sheik) Winchell, please visit our flower store.