Elizabeth Lea Winfrey Shindel was born July 28, 1951 at St. Lukes Hospital in Bluefield, WV to Lydia Brooks and William Sunday Winfrey. Beth was born two minutes before her sister, Polly, and four years before her brother, Bill. Beth was an artist by age three. She designed clothes (red net petticoats and starched collars), made pencil sketches on many surfaces, and painted. She studied piano with Vera Payne; she won the Princeton High School Art Award as a senior and studied painting, pottery and chemistry at Agnes Scott College where she met friends of a lifetime. She nurtured her musical talent for many years as pianist in her Methodist churches. Beth was an accomplished scholar, receiving a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She was on the faculty at SIU for many years, directing their baccalaureate degree programs on many U.S. military bases. She was on the faculty of St. Louis University for the last decade of her career. During the last several weeks, Beth received tributes from students around the country and globe whose dissertations she directed, whose statistics were made sound by her instruction, and who have begun to refocus the workplace with research on the qualities of a healthy workforce. Beth was devoted to her family. First of all to her son, Brian Freeburg, an Eagle Scout, McCarran Airport operations manager, and – with Beth – an enthusiastic St. Louis Cardinals fan. George Shindel and Beth married in 2019, multiplying her extended family by a factor of three, an exceedingly happy chapter of her life. She was devoted to five nephews who experienced the magic of corn mazes, the Arch, its museum, the river, the Anheuser Busch factory, paint brushes, and the Cardinals. Her quick laugh, her detours to the ice cream shop, her gift-wrapping protocol, and her interest in their lives are all legendary traits. All along the way, Beth developed family-like friendships. The depth of her devotion to them and vice versa was legendary and sustaining. The women of Agnes Scott College, in particular, had lifetime bonds. Beth is survived by her son, Brian Freeburg, her husband, George Shindel, her sister Polly Winfrey Griffin, her brother Bill Winfrey and his wife, Stephanie, and five nephews, Page Griffin, Will Winfrey, Daniel Griffin, Michael Winfrey, and David Griffin. She considered the Shindel family to be hers: Bruce and Nancy, Katherine, Bob and Janet, and Richard and Martha. A service to celebrate Beth’s life will be held on Tuesday, September 7, 2021 at 1:30 at Schildknecht Funeral Home, 301 S. Lincoln Avenue, O’Fallon, IL 62269. Visitation will begin at noon. Memorial contributions would be welcomed by Agnes Scott College, Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Cancer Research, or an institution of your choosing.Online condolences may be shared with the family via www.memorialfd.com. Information submitted by the Memorial Funeral Directory and Cremation Center on the Athens Road in Princeton.
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