Biography:

William Lane Shields, 71, son of Benita Ruth and the late William Donald Shields, died May 25, 2026 in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Lane was born in San Diego, California on July 3, 1954.  He was raised in Carthage, Missouri and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology.

Lane started his 50-year archaeological career as a teenager with his Uncle Wayne Shields and continued throughout life in the middle and western United States. He has finally laid down his digging tools. Highlights of his career include Dixon Mounds, a branch of the Illinois State Museum; work at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri; Sisyphus Rock Shelter in Western Colorado; the Shute Creek excavations near Kemmerer, Wyoming; and Loma Enebro village in New Mexico.

After completing a Master’s degree at the University of Colorado Boulder,  Lane, Linda and their daughter relocated to Iowa to bring archaeological enlightenment to the Tall Corn State.  After sixteen years in Iowa, Lane and his family moved again to Little Rock Arkansas for him to take a job with the highway department, continuing his passion for conserving America’s cultural heritage. He retired in February 2026.

His contributions to archaeological knowledge were many and varied, as were his friends in that community. Some of them now are artifacts themselves, and those that remain will miss him.

He was a proud member of the ACLU and believed strongly in the ideals of Liberty as outlined in our Constitution.

He is survived by his wife, Linda McCargo, their children, Rayven and Andrew Shields, his mother, his sister Maureen (Mike) Comotto, and many nieces and nephews.

Memorial gathering date forthcoming. Burial in Sarcoxie, Missouri.

Ecclesiastes 4:9,10