Shauna M. Dunn

Shauna Marie Dunn, 71, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, formerly of Ohio, Illinois, died Friday, March 29, 2024, after suffering a fall at home.

Shauna was born July 18, 1952, in Dixon, Illinois, to JoAnn (Tucker) Dunn and James D. “Jay” Dunn. She attended schools in Ohio, Illinois, and graduated from Ohio High School in 1970.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in business economics in 1974 from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, where she played the flute in the University of Notre Dame Varsity Band. Later, she earned a bachelor of science in nursing degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She embarked on a career in health care administration in the Milwaukee area, first as director of the impaired professional program for DePaul Rehabilitation Hospital and then, in the mid-1980s, as executive director of the Milwaukee AIDS Project.

In 1988, Shauna became executive director of the Comprehensive AIDS Program of Palm Beach County, Florida. By the time she left CAP in 1997, she had grown the fledgling agency into a $5-million-a-year service provider whose programs helped to save many lives and prolong lifespans during the early years of the AIDS pandemic.

Shauna served as spokeswoman for Advocates for Sound AIDS Policy and was executive director of the NO/AIDS Task Force in New Orleans. Later she served as associate executive director of the Palm Beach Area Council on Aging. She also served as a nurse with the Palm Beach County Medical Society and ended her career as a nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where she helped military veterans who had been wounded and traumatized during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Shauna loved riding horses and owned several during her lifetime. She participated in horse shows in rural Illinois in her younger days, specializing in the barrel race and flag race with her beloved quarter horse, Nellie.

She participated in beauty contests as a young woman in Illinois, including the Bureau County Fair Queen pageant and the Mendota Sweet Corn Festival pageant.

Shauna loved to travel. As a college sophomore, she spent a full year studying at Université catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France. Later in life, she and her husband traversed Canada on a transcontinental railroad trip and also traveled to Cuba.

She was interested in different kinds of cars, and she once owned a low-slung 1985 Pontiac Fiero. However, after entering and exiting it caused too much strain on her back, she had to trade it in.

Shauna owned larger cars, too. She once drove her 1965 Buick LeSabre, packed with college friends, to the 1973 Kentucky Derby.

She was interested in history. As a younger woman, she studied the life of outlaw and train robber Jesse James and also the history of Native American mound builders. Late in life, she made a key donation toward the cosmetic restoration of the Sash-Stalter-Matson building, owned by the Bureau County Historical Society in Princeton.

Shauna‘s younger siblings, Jim and Carole, are forever indebted to her for shouldering many family responsibilities upon the untimely death of their mother in a horse cart accident in July 1968, an accident which Shauna and Jim survived.

As her father aged into his 90s, Shauna was devoted to overseeing his best interests.

At age 51, Shauna married Paul Gyorok in an oceanside ceremony in Florida in 2004. Their 20th wedding anniversary would have been in May.

Shauna will be remembered for her strong personality, courage, sense of humor, pursuit of knowledge, and abiding interest in the lives of her nieces and nephews.

Survivors include her husband, Paul, and his daughters, Gennene and Sheila; her brother, Jim, and his wife, Jamie, and her sister, Carole Vaughn, and her husband, Mike. Also surviving are eight nieces and nephews, Rebecca, Joseph, Michael, Jeffrey, Angela, Melissa, Lindsay, and Devin; and six great nieces and great nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents and grandparents.

A memorial service was held in Jupiter, Florida, on April 6.

A funeral Mass for Shauna will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 20, at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 101 N. Main St., Ohio, Ill., with Father Thomas Shaw, pastor, officiating. Visitation at the church will be from 9 a.m. until the time of service. Burial of cremains will take place afterward at St. Mary’s Cemetery, rural Ohio.

Memorials may be directed to St. Mary’s Cemetery, c/o Angie McDonald, P.O. Box 216, Ohio, IL 61349, or to the Bureau County History Center, 634 S. Pleasant St., Princeton, IL 61356.

Garland Funeral Home, Walnut, assisted with arrangements.

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