Eileen Margaret Pottebaum

Pottebaum, Eileen Margaret, 89, devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great- grandmother passed away Sunday, December 4, 2011. Visitation with the family, 7-9 p.m. Friday, December 9 at the Auditorium, Larksfield Place, 7373 East 29 Street North, Wichita. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 10 at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 1321 Stratford Lane, Wichita. Burial will follow at Ascension Cemetery. She was born in Ipswich, England. Eileen met and fell in love with Cletus Joseph Pottebaum, a US Army Air Corps Major from Teutopolis, Illinois, as World War II roiled Europe. He soon asked for her hand in marriage and she joined her husband traveling around the world and raising six children together before settling in Wichita, Kansas where Col. Cletus Pottebaum retired after 31 years in the Air Force. For her devotion, Eileen was considered a quiet hero by her children, and a memorial brick at Wichita State University in the Plaza of Heroines bears her name. Preceded in death by her husband, brother, Pilot Officer Sidney Robert McNamara, DFC, RAF, sisters, Audrey McNamara, Pamela Pawsey and Hilda Wright and parents, Sidney Arthur William McNamara and Ellen Alice Griffiths McNamara. Survivors: children and spouses, Carol A. Hassen, of Avondale Estates, Georgia; Robert and Mary Pottebaum of Cave Creek, Arizona; Angela and Michael Busler, of Hernando, Florida; Michael Pottebaum of Wichita, Diana and Kevin Roberts of Bloomington, Illinois; Cynthia and Mike Maska of Galesburg, Illinois. Grandchildren and spouses: Kevin and Sheri Meyer of Garden Plain, Kansas, Johanna Maska and Henry Jackson of Washington, D.C., George and Stefanie Maska, Glasford, Illinois, Clayton and Jessie Maska, Galesburg, Illinois, Melissa Pottebaum of Cave Creek, Arizona, Cody and Shelby Roberts of Peoria, Illinois, Emily Roberts of Bloomington Illinois, Sarah Roberts of Bloomington, Illinois, and step- grandchildren, John, Patrick, Katharine, Michelle, Rachel, Elizabeth and Paul Busler and nine great-grandchildren with two more on the way. Brother-in-law Geoff Pawsey, of Ipswich, England, and nieces and nephews in Canada, England, New Zealand, Thailand and all over the United States. Memorials are established with The Father Kapaun Guild, 424 North Broadway, Wichita, Kansas 67202 and The School Sisters of Notre Dame, Attn: Sister Val Bueke, SSND, 320 East Ripa, St. Louis, Missouri 63125-2897. Downing Lahey Mortuary East. Visitation with the family, 7-9 p.m. Friday, December 9 at the Auditorium, Larksfield Place, 7373 East 29 Street North, Wichita. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 10 at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 1321 Stratford Lane, Wichita. Burial will follow at Ascension Cemetery.