Fallen EMT's family seeks help in getting memorial highway signs

It's official - Missouri law now designates an 8-mile portion of U.S. 50 in Moniteau County as the "Phyllis D. Shelley Memorial Highway."

However, the state Transportation Department can't put up the signs showing that stretch of highway - from the Cole-Moniteau County line to Mockingbird Road - until private donations can pay the $2,400 needed for the two signs.

So Phyllis Shelley's family - including husband, George Shelley, and daughter, Phyllis Leneen Shelley Stutzman, now 37, who was 8 when her mother died - is asking for help.

"A special account has been set up at Hawthorn Bank in California to receive donations until the $2,400 has been reached," George Shelley wrote in a "Memorial Highway Announcement" being circulated to seek financial support. "Funds must be sent in full to MoDOT before the sign will be made.

"Once the funding goal is reached and the monies are sent to MoDOT, any overage in the account will be donated to California Masonic Lodge 183 for the charitable efforts of the Lodge in the community."

Phyllis Stutzman has launched a "GoFundMe" account to help with the fund-raising. The account raised $1,625 on its first day.

"The GoFundMe page has blown me away," she told the News Tribune on Monday. "People are amazing."

George Shelley is seeking help especially from the Masonic and emergency medical services groups.

Phyllis Shelley was a past matron of California Chapter 521 Order of the Eastern Star and a past district deputy grand matron for the Grand Chapter of Missouri Order of the Eastern Star. She also had earned a master's degree in political science and history.

However, at the time of her death, Phyllis Shelley was a licensed emergency medical technician (EMT) working for the Mid-Mo Ambulance service in Moniteau and Morgan counties.

She died on Dec. 14, 1987, when the ambulance she was driving skidded out of control on a snow-covered U.S. 50 and overturned about three miles west of California.

Because of equipment problems when the emergency run began, Phyllis Shelley wasn't wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the ambulance.

She and a co-worker were responding to an accident about 4 miles west of California when her crash occurred about 9 a.m. that Monday. The co-worker was using her seat belt and received only minor injuries in the accident.

When the money is raised and sent to MoDOT, George Shelley said in an Aug. 22 letter to MoDOT, he insists the signs designating the highway include the "EMT" designation.

"Phyllis was the first and hopefully last EMT killed in the line of duty in Moniteau County," Shelley told MoDOT's Mindy Grapes-Bess in that letter, "and I wanted the sign not only to be for her, but also for all the EMT/Paramedics who perform a dangerous job that is often overlooked by the general public."

Once the money is raised and given to MoDOT, the agency said the signs will be ordered from its vendor and take nine to 12 weeks for manufacturing and installation.

If the signs are installed in the winter, Shelley wants a dedication ceremony next spring.

"Having a dedication in the winter months does not appeal to me," he told MoDOT.