Virginia Stender

Virginia Ruth Stender was born March 15, 1926, in Kansas City, Missouri to Leonard Paul Bell and Ida Belle Bell (neé Riley). She was the last of the six children born to them.  In 1942 they moved to San Bernardino, California where she graduated from high school in 1944. Soon after graduation she married Felix Leon Odle and had one son, Robert Leonard Odle.  

They lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, for about a year after which she and her son moved back to Kansas City. 

After her divorce she went to work for Southwestern Bell Telephone as a switchboard operator. It was then that she joined the Communication Workers of America. She played on one of the phone company’s softball teams and was an All-Star in a game against the TWA stewardesses. She also, single-handedly more than doubled the floor space of the house her father had built in Kansas City.  

She continued to reside in Kansas City until she re-married in 1956 to the love of her life, Donald Dean Stender. It was after her marriage in 1956 that she moved to Southwestern Bell in Tulsa, Oklahoma where her husband was employed with American Airlines.  

After their retirement they enjoyed their life-time dream of spending the winters in New Zealand, where it is summer; and the summers in Alaska.  

She continued to be active in her church until she quit driving at the age of 94.  

She leaves behind her son, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Graveside services were 11 a.m., Saturday, December 6, 2025, at Sinking Creek Cemetery, Everton, Missouri.

Arrangements under the direction of Wilson-Griffin Funeral Home.