Irene Squire was born to James and Mary Squire on the Ephraim Squire ranch west of Elgin, Nebraska, on September 8, 1929. She graduated valedictorian from Elgin High School in 1947. While attending the University of Omaha (today known as the University of Nebraska Omaha), where she studied education, she served as secretary to the President of Mutual of Omaha Insurance and in leadership in her sorority house. In 1968, upon the death of her first husband, she successfully transitioned from homemaker to manager of Kinney Finance, a small loan company. She served in leadership roles in the First Baptist Churches of Boone and Ames and the First Presbyterian Church of Marshalltown Iowa. She worked as administrative assistant to the Iowa State University Library and Beloit Social Services after the sale of Kinney Finance in 1982.

Irene (Squire Kinney) and John Briggs Sheeler were married on July 18, 1970, in Boone Iowa. They lived happily in Ames and later Marshalltown, Iowa. Her previous marriage to Elvon (Al) Kinney on November 20, 1949, ended with his death in Boone, Iowa, in 1968.

Irene was predeceased by her parents James and Mary Squire; her sister Pat Anderson; stepsons Johnny(Sue) and Bob Sheeler(Patti); and in-laws Fern and Maynard Stearns and Max and Dorothy Sheeler. She is survived by her sister Sharon Koziol (Walt), of Elgin, Nebraska, and 6 children: Dan Sheeler, of Marshalltown, Iowa, Anne Sheeler Tiller, of Chandler, Arizona, Diane Kinney Hora (Randy), of Valrico, Florida, James Kinney (Felisa), of Madison, Indiana, Bill Sheeler and John Kinney (Omar), of Old Chatham, New York. Irene and John have 23 grandchildren, 43 great grandchildren and 12 great-great grandchildren.