Alice Elaine Bilyeu

Alice Elaine (Mitchell) Bilyeu passed away unexpectedly on July 26, 2024. Alice was born at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, MO on December 8, 1976, to Barbara and Stephen Mitchell. She was educated at Sunset Hill School, Notre de Sion School, graduating from St. Teresa Academy in 1995. She graduated in the upper part of her class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a B.S. degree in accounting in 2000, and later received an M.B.A. degree from Baker University. She was a very good student and was proud of her academic accomplishments.

Alice as a young child moved with her parents, one sister and one brother from the Brookside neighborhood in 1985, to her longtime home at 2 Janssen Place, Kansas City, MO, where the family later increased to include another brother. Alice married the love of her life Steven Bilyeu on March 19, 2003, in St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Together they had three beautiful children, Steven Carl on March 4, 2004, Ava Elaine on July 31, 2006 and M.J. (Mitchell James) on July 27, 2011. Alice, her husband and children lived in Cleveland, MO. Alice worked in the family businesses – Quality Construction Co. and Louisburg Barbeque and Brews – using her accounting skills by maintaining the financial data with her many spreadsheets. Accuracy was important to her and she prided herself on her ability to present the companies’ financial picture at a moment’s notice. Alice, as the co-owner/manager of the Louisburg BBQ, she would be the first to add that she also occasionally schlepped plates and almost any other task necessary in the restaurant business. Alice also had a career as a real estate agent, which gave her much satisfaction. Her clients spoke highly of interactions with her and her competence.

Family was the most important thing in Alice’s life. As a little girl she spent several weeks each summer at her grandparents’ homes in El Dorado, KS, where she got to know her cousins – she eagerly looked forward to those annual visits. Alice recently described her childhood years as ones with very fond memories. Alice especially loved her siblings, who often were captured in photos throughout the years that were termed “the 4 A’s”. But the most important people in her life were her husband and children, whom she adored. Alice thrived on being a cherished wife and loving mother. She spent many days with them at their lake house at the Lake of the Ozarks boating, grilling out and relaxing. She especially enjoyed it when her parents and siblings made the annual trek there every summer for a long weekend, the most recent one having just occurred over the 4th of July holiday weekend. Additionally, she loved all the animals she cared for over her lifetime, even the unauthorized ones she brought home while growing up, and even those fancy chickens that had a very short stay at their Cleveland house due to their unclean nature and were given away to friends before any of them grew mature enough to lay one egg. Alice had a great following of loyal customers and friends at their BBQ, some who would frequently drop off produce for her in the growing season. She enjoyed the restaurant life and recently remarked how she and Steve had grown closer due to their mutual problem solving and shared management chores connected to their BBQ business.

Alice was preceded in death by her grandparents, Shirley and Galen Mitchell and Eva and Charlie Fuller and her father-in-law Gil Raney. Alice will be greatly missed and is lovingly survived by her husband, three children, her parents, her three siblings Anne Hinkebein, Andrew Mitchell and Adam Mitchell, her mother-in-law Lucille Raney, her two brothers-in-law Scott Bilyeu and Jay Reyes, her sisters-in-law Paula Clark and Joyce Reyes, many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, her co-workers and too many friends to mention. Last but not least, because pets were always important to Alice, she is survived by her three cats Willow, Bud and Rose, her two dogs Blu and Derby, and her turtle Tina.

Visitation will be held from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at Dengel & Son Mortuary – Louisburg Chapel, 1 Aquatic Drive, Louisburg, Kansas 66053. Funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm, Thursday, August 1, 2024, also at the funeral home. Private burial will be held at the Louisburg Cemetery.

You are invited to join the family at their BBQ from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, to reminisce and share your fond memories of Alice.

For those desiring to make contributions in her memory, it is suggested they do so to any charity of their choice, c/o Dengel & Son Mortuary, P.O. Box 669, Louisburg, Kansas 66053.