Laurel Wilcox, 87, of Lafayette, Indiana, died Saturday, May 5, 2018 at the Cumberland Pointe Health Campus in West Lafayette resulting from a stroke that she suffered in September, 2016. She was born on July 27, 1930 in Chicago, and was the daughter of the late Harold P. and Romeyne Sellstrom Halleen.

Laurel attended Taft High School in Chicago where she served as Editor of the School Paper. In that role, she was selected to have an all-expense paid trip to visit the United Nations in New York where she met top officials from around the world. She was a 1952 graduate of Wheaton College, majoring in Greek and graduating with highest honors. On June 21, 1952 she married Conrad Wilcox in Chicago and he survives. She ministered along with her husband as he served as Pastor of three different Churches, Beecher Community Church, Beecher, Ill, Wheaton Evangelical Free Church, Wheaton Ill. and Blackhawk Avenue Evangelical Free Church, Madison, Wis. Together with her husband, she served as a missionary to Venezuela with The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) from 1956 to 1966. Laurel and Connie were the first missionaries sent out from the newly formed Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in 1956. In Venezuela, Laurel served as a teacher at the Ebenezer Bible Institute. She had the unique experience of giving birth to her four children in three different countries, USA, Costa Rica and Venezuela. And while at home her humble spirit of service was demonstrated by serving on various committees in the church or serving as a volunteer at the Repeat Boutique in Wheaton providing clothing and household goods to those in need.

Laurel was besieged with serious health problems in both Venezuela and the USA. When she was 36, she survived a massive blood clot to the lungs which normally was almost instantly fatal. But God chose to arrange an unusual series of circumstances along with open heart surgery that allowed Laurel to become the 15 ^th person in medical history at that point, to live through it and the first successful case in Chicago.

Aside from serving God both locally and globally, Laurel's greatest passion was doing creative things for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren all throughout the year including dozens of care packages by UPS and individually wrapped gifts for Christmas stockings even as adults. Her fondest memories were the many vacations spent in rustic camping and fishing on tiny islands at Northern Light Lake in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Ontario. Stemming from her early experience in serving as an editor in both high school and college, Laurel enjoyed writing and spent hours composing family letters to family and in the later years sending hundreds of e-mails from her computer. She also enjoyed many pets throughout her lifetime and had special interest in wildlife and the environment.

She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Rev. Conrad; her four children, Cheri (Glenn) Sparks of Lafayette, David and Dan of West Chicago, Illinois and Deborah (Gary) Wiederhold of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; her five grandchildren, David, Erin, Jordan, Daniel and Catherine; her six great grandchildren, Caleb, Joshua, Benjamin, Autumn, Caraline and Isaiah; and one brother, Dr. Owen (Sherry) Halleen of Sioux Falls, S.D.

She was preceded in death by two brothers, Otis Halleen and Dr. Wayne Halleen.

Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, May 9 at 12 noon at the Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N. Main Street, Wheaton, Illinois, with visitation from 10 until 12 p.m. A graveside service will be held in Wheaton Cemetery following the service.  A Memorial Service will be announced later to be held at the Riverside Covenant Church, 1850 Woodland Avenue, West Lafayette, Indiana, where Laurel and her husband have been members since 2010. Memorial contributions, in honor of Laurel, may be made to the Riverside Covenant Church .