Shea Woollums

Shea Lynn Woollums was born on July 24, 1980 at the Decatur County Hospital in Leon, Iowa to parents Garey Lynn Woollums and Sheila Lynn (Vanderflute) Nauman. Shea welcomed into the family brother Travis Lee in 1982 and sister Kelly Jo in 1984. Shea departed this life much too soon - at the early age of 43 - on December 9, 2023.
Growing up, Shea's family moved several times, living in Ringgold, Decatur and Union counties as well as Hatfield, MO. He started elementary at Grand Valley Community School and later attended Central Decatur County Schools. Shea met some of his very best lifelong friends during these early years, spending time with them and family in the Leon, Kellerton and Creston areas. His very first job after high school at a filling station in Lamoni rotating tires and changing oil possibly lighting the spark for his later mechanical interests.
In 2004, Shea became a manager of chicken barns in Southern Iowa for Bill Ehm. He left the chicken barn job to work as a millwright on grain elevators for Scott Ablidtrup.
It was during this time Shea met and married Lindsey Frey. In 2004 they welcomed Halden Leon, followed by Hoffman Paul in 2006. The family settled in Creston where Shea started working in maintenance at CF Processing. Shea went to work for Swine Graphics in Murray as a barn manager and remained there until he took a job doing concrete construction for Jim Shelton out of Osceola. His latest employment was with Dana Frey for Midwest Construction assembling and installing all-season home additions.
Shea was a wonderful, loving father. He was always available for his boys and spent as much time with them as he could. He was forever helpful and supportive of family and friends. He could be counted on to help with any project, big or small and was pretty good at nearly anything he put his mind to - whether it was building a motorcycle from the ground up or perfecting his moonshining craft. And per-fect that he did!
He loved riding his motorcycle solo and with many of his good friends. And Shea LOVED being a shade-tree mechanic, probably picking up some of those skills from his early years with Grandpa Larry. He enjoyed working on anything with a motor and wheels. His interest in big machinery came more recently as he and his dad spent a lot of time together and recognized some of their projects needed bigger tools and more power. Shea had a natural skill for operating a backhoe, a skid loader and a bulldozer. He enjoyed moving dirt. He LOVED those big machines! And his dad loved spending that time with him! Especially in Kellerton. To Shea, Kellerton projects weren't work, and short of maybe a cold Redd's Hard Apple Ale, he wouldn't take payment for those jobs 'cuz you don't take money from family. And per Shea, if you were from Kellerton, you were family.
Family was another true love of Shea's. From a young adult age, he tried to attend every family event he could fit into his schedule. He enjoyed the conversations, the food and joining in on the occasional pop-up cribbage games. He came as often as he could and stayed as long as he could. Those large and very tattooed arms held his sons and a lot of nieces and nephews as they slept on his shoulder. Those large and very tattooed arms also gave the most enormous and genuine hugs. Everyone loved Shea's sense of humor and his warmth. His presence was missed when he wasn't able to be at the family events. His presence will be missed every day from this day forward. Shea was a loving father, son, brother, grandson, nephew, uncle, cousin and friend. He was loved by all, will be missed by all, and he will live on in our hearts and our memories forever.
Shea is preceded in death by his grandfather Perry Woollums, grandfather Larry Vanderflute, uncle Larry Alan Vanderflute and family friend Hank Yoder.
Left to cherish his memory are children Halden and Hoffman, parents Garey and Rhonda (Johnston) Woollums, Sheila (Vanderflute) Nauman, brothers Travis (Trisha) Woollums, Wesley (Dee) Gregg and Christopher (Jamie) Woollums, sister Kelly (Scott) Woollums, nephews Keegan (Katrina) Aschan, Daysen (Tiffany) Gregg, great-nephew Ezra Aschan, nieces Hailley (Keegan) Brown, Brylea Woollums, Aryana Woollums, Cayleigh Woollums, Charlee Woollums, Hadlee Woollums and Hayzlee Woollums, grandmother Pauline Woollums, grandparents Ivan and Janice (Vanderflute) Deemer, grandparents Ron and Evelyn Johnston, family friend Ashley Walker, a large number of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Memorials are to the family to be decided.
The family requests casual attire at his services.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Shea, please visit our floral store.
If you would like to make a donation in memory of Shea Woollums, please visit the
Tribute Fund.