Fortified by the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, and with her children by her side, Susan Jane Mitchell Callis passed into eternal life March 25, 2024.
Susan was born May 13, 1934 in Kirkwood, Missouri, the daughter of Anne Hille Mitchell and Darragh McGirk Mitchell. A 1952 graduate of Kirkwood High School, where she was once a hall monitor with a shy, but handsome, kid named Lyle Waggoner, she continued her education at Missouri University, Columbia. While at Mizzou, she became a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and graduated in 1956 with her bachelor’s in Education. On June 30, 1956, she married Robert S. Gardner, and after a cross-country honeymoon trip to California and Bob’s posting to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, she returned to teach at Spoede Road Elementary School, Ladue, Missouri, until Bob’s return, their reunion, and a second honeymoon in Mexico.
What Susan initially suspected was Montezuma’s Revenge turned out to be Scott, born May, 1958, 9 months to the day Bob got off the ship from Okinawa. A little more than 2 years later, Anne was born July, 1960.
Susan was active in her children’s education and activities, serving in Heber Hunt Elementary PTA and Anne’s Brownie troop and enjoying camping at Camp Sacajawea, especially wake-up kisses from the Bullers’ large dog.
In 1973, Susan asked District 200 administrators if she needed to go back to school to brush up on teaching skills. They responded by putting her in a classroom at Whittier Elementary School with 6 weeks to go in the school year. She continued to teach at Whittier and Sedalia Junior High until 1981, when Patty Wagenknecht set her up with Patty’s cousin Bill Callis, on leave before his next posting. Both divorced, they realized they had at least one thing in common – they didn’t like being set up. Bill leaned over to Susan and said, “We might as well agree to one date or Patty will never quit trying to set us up.” So off to the Missouri State Fair went these two for their first date.
Anne recalls calling her mother and telling her that she would be coming home from college to spend the 1981 Labor Day weekend with her. Anne was shocked when Susan replied she would not be there as she was meeting Bill in New Orleans for that weekend. The portrait with this obituary is from that trip. By November, Susan and Bill were married at Calvary Episcopal Church , and Susan became Mitch Callis, as in “Mitch and the Major” on the wedding cake.
(We digress for an explanation. Our mother has had many names and nicknames. A true Kirkwood HS Pioneer, she pioneered what is now known as a “California stop” and was nicknamed “Right Away Mitchell.” To her students, she was “Mrs. Gardner,” except at Spoede Road Elementary, where her cousin Susan Maxwell gleefully told her classmates our mother’s first name. Susan became Mitch because Bill’s first wife was named Susan. Susan stayed Mitch after Bill died and she moved back to Sedalia. Sedalia is also home to Susan Schien Callis, Bill’s cousin Don’s wife, which did not prevent the two Susans from sharing each other’s prescriptions, doctors appointment reminders and bills by accident and referring to themselves as the “other Susan Callis.”)
Mitch and the Major immediately left for his next posting, Hurlburt Field, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where he was a weapons navigator for a Spectre gunship. On his days off, they would enjoy motoring their sailboat from their dock on Cinco Bayou to a bridge, Mitch lowering the main mast on to Bill’s shoulder to go under the bridge, and then securing the cable to the boat after Bill walked the mast upright. They would then go sailing all over Choctawhatchee Bay and out into the Gulf of Mexico before returning to the bridge, repeating this feat of strength, and docking at home.
Bill’s simulator work for Link/GM-EDS/Raytheon after his military retirement took them to North Little Rock, Arkansas (Spectre); Arlington, Texas (Stealth bomber); and El Lago, Texas (Shuttle). Mitch greeted children and grandchildren coming from Missouri to see the sights or just thaw out, and Bill got them in to see the good stuff, like the Shuttle simulator and a mockup of the ISS. She also got involved with local politics and even reported on city council meetings for her neighborhood in El Lago.
Bill died January 19, 2000, and Mitch moved to Sedalia to live with Anne in October of that year. She quickly got involved with her kids, grandkids, Calvary Episcopal Church, and the Sedalia School District Foundation. For many years, she rounded up her Alpha Mu Class of 1956 sisters to write something for the “Theta Newsletter,” dreaded while in production and appreciated at a distance. Her advice was solicited by many in local politics, and it was only a coincidence that Mitch and Anne lived in a house that was a really, really good spot for signs near two churches and on Broadway. She was able to celebrate her children being recognized as being one of two brother-sister sets of valedictorians of Smith-Cotton High School, and was present when all her grandchildren received their high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. On September 14, 2022, she celebrated KHS Class of 1952’s 70th anniversary with her classmates in Kirkwood.
Mitch was predeceased by her parents and her second husband, William Charles Callis; and her sister, Nancy Mitchell Kingsley, Peoria, Illinois. Surviving to celebrate Mitch’s freedom from pain and limitations of movement are her children, R. Scott Gardner (Judy) and Anne Collins Gardner, Sedalia; grandchildren Theodore Scott Gardner, Independence; Meredith Glyn Gardner, Lee’s Summit; and Madeline Jane Cramer (Tyler), Blue Springs; niece Susan Kingsley Robinson (Matthew), Prairie Village, Kansas, and their children; and nephew Thomas Chenault Kingsley (Gina), Carol Stream, Illinois, and their children.
A memorial service will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, April 13, 2024 at Calvary Episcopal Church, Sedalia, with visitation beginning at 10:00 a.m. in lieu of flowers, her family suggests donations to honor Mitch’s love for her church and for teaching; please send to Calvary Episcopal Church, 713 South Ohio Avenue, Sedalia, Missouri or the Sedalia School District Foundation, Sedalia200.foundation@gmail.com.