Shelia Ellison Durfey, 74 years old, of Kokomo, Indiana passed away on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at her home in Kokomo after a 5 ½ year battle with lung disease, breast cancer, bone cancer, brain cancer and finally leukemia. Shelia was born in Lebanon, Indiana on September 15, 1951, the daughter of the late Leo and Merion Elizabeth Ellison. On November 10, 1973 she married James Robert Durfey, her husband of over 52 years, at St. Michael’s church in Indianapolis, Indiana, and he survives.

Shelia was raised in Brownsburg, Indiana and graduated from Brownsburg High School in 1969 and she attended Indiana State University for two years. She worked at Sears where she met her husband Jim, who always says that “Sears has everything”, and they married nine months thereafter. It was clearly love at first sight!

Shelia worked for the State of Indiana as a data processing specialist, later embarking on a career in residential real estate in St. Louis and Chicago. During her married life she and her family moved from Indianapolis to St. Louis, Chicago, San Antonio, San Diego, Los Angeles and back to San Diego before Jim’s retirement in 2017. Jim and Shelia eventually moved to Kokomo in 2021.

Shelia was an avid golfer (her handicap was as low as 11 at one time), having made three holes-in-one during her time on the links! She was a member of the Women’s Southern California Golf Association Board of Directors, where she was the Rules Committee Chairperson. She also served as lead rules official for the 15-to-18 year old women’s group at the IMG Junior World Golf Classic in San Diego for 10 years, and officiated many other amateur golf tournaments. She loved to bake and sew (having made her own wedding gown and her oldest daughter’s bridesmaids’ dresses).

In addition to her husband Jim, Shelia is survived by her two daughters, Renee Marchese (Anthony) and Angela Curran (Dustin) and three grandchildren, Dominic Marchese (21), Natalia Marchese (18) and Reed Curran (13), all of whom were the joys of her life.

There will be no funeral (a Celebration of Life will be held in Kokomo Indiana at a future date), as Shelia showed her caring, kindness and compassion by donating her body for research to the Indiana University School of Medicine and her ashes will be returned to Jim upon completion of the research. Any donations on her behalf should be made to the Indiana University School of Medicine: https://give.myiu.org/iu-indianapolis/I320016008.html.