Shirley I. Stewart; Switchboard Operator

Shirley Ingram Woodill Stewart of Ventura died Monday in Missoula, Mont., after a long illness. She was 70.

Born in Kelso, Wash., she came to Ventura County in 1969 and remained until recently moving to Montana to live with her son.

Stewart spent many years as a military wife, traveling to Japan, Germany and throughout the United States. In 1965, while her husband was in Vietnam, she spearheaded a food and clothing drive in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for Vietnamese orphans.

“My mother spent hours and hours cutting out Christmas stockings” for the orphans, said daughter Pamela Woodill-Seibel of Oxnard.

Besides being a Red Cross volunteer, she was involved in scouting and Camp Fire Girls. While her husband was stationed in Germany, she helped children of American servicemen earn their badges, Woodill-Seibel said.

Stewart retired as a switchboard operator for the county government, owned a coin-operated laundry and a spa and worked for a local printing company.

Stewart’s husband of 14 years, Bert Stewart, died in 1991. Her former husband, William Woodill, lives in Oregon. In addition to Woodill-Seibel, she is survived by three daughters, Sherry Taladay and Cynthia Woodill of Ventura and Lauri Leach of Oxnard; a son, James Woodill of Missoula; nine grandchildren; and a great granddaughter. Another son, Scott Woodill, died in 1997.

Visitation will be Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home in Ventura. Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Ivy Lawn Mausoleum Chapel with the Rev. Jim Wells officiating. Entombment will follow.