Hortense (Van Ross) Butler

Life’s Reflection    

Hortense Shinall was born to Clara Shinall in Kansas City, Kansas on November 7, 1924. She was eight years old when she lost her mother, leaving her and her two young sisters, Ethel Jean and Rachel to be raised by their maternal grandmother, Martha Harvey. Hortense adored "Grandma" and for the rest of her long life, she spoke of her    often and praised her for choosing to raise the three girls during the years of the depression.

She was baptized as a child at the Eighth Street Christian Church, where she sang in the choir both as a child and an adult.

She loved school and attended Douglass Elementary, Northeast Junior High and Sumner High School. During high school she met the love of her life, Raymond Van Ross, and they were married in South Carolina on February 22, 1941.  After traveling the south while Raymond served his country in the Army, they settled for a while in Monterey and Santa Cruz, California, where their first son was born.  Hortense loved California and would talk about life there and how beautiful the ocean was for the rest of her life.  After moving back to Kansas City, Kansas, their family continued to grow by seven more children.

Hortense loved to cook, and she worked at many establishments throughout the Kansas City area.  She also served as Douglass Elementary PTA President, where her children attended school. Following the death of Raymond in 1974, she later met and married Orville Butler in 1985.  It was at that time that she moved her church membership to Salem Baptist Church, under the leadership of her childhood friend, Rev. C. B. Bailey.  

After Orville passed in 1992, Hortense became a Foster Grandparent, working at Peppermint Nursery, KU Medical Center and KCK Public Schools before retiring in 2009.

In her later years, she enjoyed visits from her great-grandchildren. Holidays where her home was filled with family, and she remained a faithful member of Salem's Ruth Circle Auxiliary Mission until her health began to fail in 2013.

Along with both husbands, she was preceded in death by sons, Raymond Jr.; James; Robert; and Gary; daughters, Sharon; and Donna; two sisters, Ethel Jean; and Rachel.

She leaves to cherish her memory son, Michael Van Ross; daughter; Renee Van Ross; two daughters-in-law, Sharon Van Ross; and Bessie Van Ross; twenty grandchildren; twenty-five great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and a devoted cousin Naomi Jean Evans.

She will be missed so much more than she ever could have imagined. Rest in peace as you walk around Heaven all day.

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