Louis Wendell Shaw, 95, of Galesburg and Erie, died Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at Labette Health.

He was born Nov. 21, 1913 at Galesburg, a son of Homer Ivan and Maud Trowbridge Shaw. He was raised in Galesburg and attended school there. During the depression years he worked on the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington State. He returned to Galesburg in 1939 and began farming. He farmed many years at Galesburg and in 1974 he moved to Erie where he worked as a carpenter and sold advertising for county directories in Kansas and Oklahoma. He retired in 1978. He had resided at the Parsons Presbyterian Manor since 2002.

He was united in marriage to Anna Bernice Lero in 1949 at St. Paul. They later divorced.

In his youth, he was a member of the Galesburg United Methodist Church. He was a member of the Kansas State Historical Society. He loved history, especially Neosho County history. Throughout the years he collected numerous Indian artifacts and donated many of them to the Kansas State Historical Society and to the Osage Mission-Neosho County Museum at St. Paul. He was one of the volunteers who restored the Osage Mission School House which was moved to the museum property at St. Paul. He was also an avid coin and stamp collector.

Survivors include three sons, Wayne Shaw and his wife, Ruth, Parsons, Thomas Shaw and his wife, Debbie, Parsons; Joseph Shaw and his wife, Troy, Eureka; a daughter, Karen Whipple and her husband, Don, rural Baldwin City; 11 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; a sister, Jean Shaw, Kansas City, Mo.

He was preceded in death by five brothers, Homer, Roy, Albert, Harold and Vern Shaw; and two sisters, Esther Robbins and Elizabeth Johnson.

The body will be cremated. Memorial services are scheduled to be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28 at the Galesburg United Methodist Church with the Rev. Ralph Peters officiating. Burial will be in the Mt. Hope Cemetery at Galesburg. The family will receive friends an hour before the service Saturday at the church. Friends may call at their convenience to register at the Carson-Wall Funeral Home at Parsons. Memorials are suggested to the Galesburg Museum or to the Galesburg United Methodist Church; these may be left at or mailed to the funeral home, P.O. Box 942, Parsons, KS 67357.