Shawn Lee Rector, 59, and Susan Renee Rector, 54, passed away together on August 6, 2026, while visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota, leaving behind a family who adored them, an incredible collection of memories and adventures, and an ever-growing “friend tribe” whose lives were forever changed simply by knowing them.
Shawn was born on October 25, 1966, in Ontario, California, to Dean and Shirley Rector. Susan was born on December 11, 1971, in Ulysses, Kansas, to Donald and Dinah Lorlovick.
Their individual stories eventually became one on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2003, when they married in a courthouse “shotgun wedding,” with Shawn’s brother William and wife Deborah as their only witnesses.
Twenty-three years later, they were still doing what they had always done best: doing life together.
Their 23 years of marriage were filled with children and grandchildren, careers and changes, race cars and motorcycles, more animals than Shawn probably ever agreed to, countless miles on the road, adventures across the country, and an extraordinary number of friendships made along the way.
But before anything else, they were Mom and Dad. Papa and Gigi.
Together, Shawn and Susan built a family that never needed qualifiers like “step” to define who belonged to whom. Their children were simply their children, and their siblings were simply their siblings: Gage, Will, Lacie, Cole, Cayden, and Codye.
They were preceded in death by their beloved son, Gage Alan Rector, who passed away on September 27, 2016, at the age of 30. Losing a child was a heartbreak no parent should ever have to know, and it was a loss Shawn and Susan carried together for the remainder of their lives.
They leave behind their children and their families: Will Rector and his wife, Madeline, and their daughters Evelyn, Emilia, and Elinore; Lacie Killian and her husband, Jeremy, and their sons Carter and Cooper; Cole Higgs and his wife, Makayla, and their children Bentley, Easton, Bryndle, and Tayton; Cayden Higgs and his wife, Shirea, and their daughters Everleigh and Wrenlee; and Codye Walb and his wife, Claire, and their daughter Sophia.
Those 12 grandchildren were among the greatest joys of Shawn and Susan’s lives.
To them, Shawn and Susan were simply Papa and Gigi. And according to Gigi, there was never much question about which grandparent was the favorite. Susan loved reminding Shawn that Gigi was the grandkids’ favorite, and she wasn’t particularly interested in hearing evidence to the contrary. Whether Papa agreed with this completely unbiased assessment is another story.
What was never up for debate was how fiercely they both loved those kids.
Shawn and Susan were proud parents and even prouder grandparents. They didn’t simply feel proud of their children, they said it. They celebrated the adults their children became, the families they built, and the parents they grew into. They bragged about their grandchildren and made sure their children knew that no matter how old they became or where life carried them, Mom and Dad would always be in their corner.
They loved their children fiercely, believed in them endlessly, and never let them wonder how proud they were to be their parents.
Celebrating Shawn and Susan Rector Saturday, September 5, at 1 p.m.
Oasis Church
712 E. Hampton Rd.
Ulysses, KS 67880
