Funeral Mass for Mary Jo Shanks of Wall Lake will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at St. Mary Catholic Church in Auburn.
Mrs. Shanks, 61, died of cancer Friday, April 4, at her home.
The Rev. Larry McCarty will celebrate the Mass, and music will be provided by the St. Mary choir and organist Carmen Ludwig.
Casketbearers will be Tom Underberg, Jim Irlbeck, John Halbur, Rick Bruning, Melvin Buse, and Charlie Hansen.
Burial will be at Oakland Cemetery in Sac City.
Farber and Otteman Funeral Home of Wall Lake is in charge of arrangements.

A daughter of Alvie and Hilda (Pursifull) Steffes, she was born May 23, 1941, at St. Anthony Hospital in Carroll and baptized at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Carroll that same year.

She attended St. Joseph School in Carroll, Webster City School, Sacred Heart School in Spencer and Truro Junior High and High School. She graduated from Manning High School in 1959.

She and Jerome Irlbeck were married October 10, 1959, at Sacred Heart Church in Manning, where she remained an active member for many years. The couple had two children: David and Sarah.

She and Harry Shanks were married July 15, 1990, at Breda.

Mrs. Shanks was a member of St. Mary Parish in Auburn. She worked at the Fraulein Haus in Manning for five years, M&M Golf Course for 10 years and Black Hawk Life Care Center in Lake View for five years. She also cleaned house for various people in Manning.

Her hobbies included embroidery, reading, visiting with family and friends, dancing, camping, horseback riding, watching movies and playing cards. She was a former president of Parents Without Partners.

Survivors include her husband, Harry Shanks; two children: David Irlbeck of Big Rock Illinois, and Sarah Segebart and her husband, Andy, of Denison two stepsons: John Shanks o Omaha, Nebraska, and Ben Shank of Breda; two grandchildren Alicia and Nichole Irlbeck two step-grandchildren: Kayla and Jarod Shanks; two brothers: the Rev. LuVerne "Luke Steffes of Atkinson, Nebraska, an Frances Steffes and his wife, Linda, of Grand Island, Nebraska, and a sister, Barbara McMains of Altoona.

She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Georgia Steffes.