Florence S. Filley

Florence A. Filley left this world on May 7, 2024 to be reunited with all her loved ones who passed before her. She was born on November 21, 1928 in Ashtabula, Ohio to Paul Simon and Victoria Nagem Simon. A graduate of St. Joseph Academy, she continued on to earn her undergraduate degree from West Virginia University and her graduate degree at Indiana University. She taught at North Dakota University and Ohio State University. In 1963, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin to work as a Clinical Instructor teaching in the area of fluency disorders in the Speech and Hearing Clinics at UW-Madison in addition to maintaining her own private practice. Florence loved her work and was highly respected for her contributions. She impacted many people through her teaching, many workshops, and continuing in her own private practice after retiring from the University in 1994. Florence was granted Emeritus upon her retirement. Her work at UW also included chairing or serving on a number of university committees as well as elected to serve on the department’s review committee from 1987-1991. During her tenure, she was honored with the Wisconsin Speech and Hearing Association Lifetime Achievement Award as well as a nomination for the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Department of Communicative Disorders. She went on to co-author a text book with her dear friend and colleague Lois Nelson on treating children’s speech fluency. Florence was generous with her actions. She was a kind, smart, and thoughtful woman. She had a wonderful sense of humor and loved to share a good laugh. She enjoyed gardening immensely and her gardens that surrounded her home were admired by neighbors and people passing by as a thing of beauty! Florence was an avid reader and always a great source of book recommendations. She had the opportunity to travel when she could visiting places that included Italy. Above all, Florence treasured the time with her friends and family. She wrote “My greatest achievement has been raising three daughters who are kind, compassionate, loyal, generous and have an admirable work ethic”. People missing her are her three daughters Leah Filley, Jennifer Elliott (Tim) and Amy Guinther (David). Also missing her are her grandchildren Austin Elliott (Morgan), Ruby Guinther, Gabrielle Guinther and her great-granddaughter Mabel. She was fortunate to have very special friendships that spanned multiple decades including Kitty Miller, Kay Simmons, Lynn Prizler, and Mary Smith. A celebration of life will be 2:00-4:30 in the Atrium at Olbrich Gardens on June 3, 2024. Please join us in celebrating the life of our mother, sister, grandmother and friend. Our family is grateful to the kind souls at Agrace HospiceCare Center for helping Mom transition into her next journey. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made Agrace or a charity of your choice. Understand this, the body is merely the foam of the wave, the shadow of the shadow. Snip the arrow flowers desire and the unseen escape the king of death and travel on…