Phyllis Ann (Steinkamp) Bales, 98, died, Saturday, March 22, at her home. She joins her son, siblings and parents.
She was born Phyllis Ann Steinkamp on July 26, 1926, in Quincy, Ill., to Dorothy (Feld) and Clarence Steinkamp. At an early age, her family left Quincy for Aurora, where she lived for much of her life. She graduated from East Aurora High School in 1944 and from the University of Illinois – where she was a champion beer chugger, worked on the school newspaper with Hugh Hefner and was a buddy of television personality Gene Shalit – in 1948. Many Illini friends and sorority sisters remained lifelong friends.
She was a schoolteacher and homemaker, and later a frequent substitute teacher in the West Aurora School District, where all her children attended school. Despite having nine children she often made time to sit on the floor and play card games, from Casino, to Hearts to double, triple or even quintuple Solitaire. She was a Cub Scout den mother and volunteered for other a

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