Delores Estes

Delores Jean Estes, 88, of Cape Girardeau passed away Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017, at the Lutheran Home.

She was born Dec. 4, 1928, in Cape Girardeau to the late Dewey and Emma Kirchhoff Reynolds. She and Gary Estes started a 64-year-long journey together March 7, 1953, when they were married at the Southeast Missouri State College Baptist Student Union in Cape Girardeau. They met while students at Southeast and were married after graduating in 1952, while Gary was serving in the U.S. Air Force at Hamilton Air Force base in San Rafael, California.

After completing his initial enlistment in 1955, Gary and Delores started the next phase of their lives back in Cape Girardeau, followed by 10 years in Sikeston, Missouri, where Delores taught English at Sikeston and Scott County Central high schools.

Gary’s job as an insurance adjuster would take them to the Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Memphis, Tennessee; Columbia, Missouri; and St. Louis before retiring in 1989 and returning to Cape Girardeau, where they lived since.

Along their journey, Delores completed coursework and earned a master’s in education from the University of Missouri-Columbia and taught English or worked as a librarian in local high schools at each of their stops. She finished a 25-year teaching career in 1989 at Fox Senior High School in Arnold, Missouri.

In retirement, Delores was an active member of Hobbs Chapel United Methodist Church and the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. She and Gary spent many enjoyable retirement years traveling in Europe and RVing throughout Missouri, Virginia, Florida and Texas with Delores’ brother, Howard (Helen) Reynolds, and her older sister, Margie (Ray) Waldrup. The three couples frequently migrated south to Texas and Florida for the winter, spending time playing cards, sightseeing, listening to music and just enjoying life.

Delores is survived by her loving husband, Gary Estes of Cape Girardeau; her sister, Margie Waldrup of Cape Girardeau; four nephews, Lonnie (Donna) Waldrup of Scott City, Scott (Beth) Reynolds of Sikeston, Doug (Kay) Reynolds of Nashville, Tennessee, and Randy (Janet) Reynolds of Nashua, New Hampshire; and great-nephew, Sam (Jennifer) Reynolds of Memphis. In addition to her immediate family, Delores is survived and loved by her extended Kirchhoff family.

She was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Howard Reynolds.

Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Stan Hargis officiating. Entombment will be at Cape County Memorial Park Mausoleum in Cape Girardeau.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be given to the Cape Girardeau Senior Center.

Online condolences may be made at www.fordandsonsfuneralhome.com.