Celeste Gill Stevens, known to her family and countless friends as Candy, passed away at home surrounded by her family on Sept. 21, 2020. She succumbed within weeks to metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The daughter of John J. Gill and Gertrude L. Rheb Gill, Candy was born in 1954 in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., raised in Manhassett, N.Y, and graduated from the local high school. Tall, graceful and lovely, she was a high school cheerleader and editor of the class paper. She majored in psychology at Duke University, where she met her future husband, Bruce, and graduated in December 1975. She and Bruce wed the following month near her home.
Moving to Hinsdale in June of 1979, Candy threw herself into local charitable organizations, including Newcomers, the Hinsdale Humane Society, where she served on the board, the auxiliary of the Katherine Legge Memorial Park and the youth programs at Union Church. In later years, she joined the board of the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago. She also discovered the joy and peace of yoga and became a well-beloved teacher to many both on her own and at Yoga Among Friends in Downers Grove.
But Candy's most important and cherished activity was being a wonderful mother to her two children, who she guided into maturity as wonderful adults, and an angel of a wife to her husband. Candy was known to all as a warm, generous, giving and loving spirit, always eager to listen to, counsel and help all of God's creatures, human or otherwise.
Candy is survived by her husband, Bruce; her sister, Karen G. Meyer; her son, Gill; and her daughter, Cara.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Anti-Cruelty Society of Chicago, the National Alliance on Mental Health, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, The Lustgarten Foundation (for pancreatic cancer research) or Union Church of Hinsdale.
Interment is private.
Sullivan Funeral Home in Hinsdale handled the arrangements.
