Goldie Fay (Reed) Kiister passed away Friday, May 30, 2025, in Columbus after an illness.
She was born to Alvin and Mable (Nation) Reed on June 20, 1933, in Rich Hill, Missouri. Often forced to live with others growing up, she was staying with her sister, Lorene, and brother-in-law, Lelin George, on their farm when she met a milk hauler who was making his rounds picking up 10-gallon milk cans to deliver to the Kraft plant in Oswego. Six weeks later, on Aug. 22, 1949, at the age of 16, she married that milk hauler, Virgil Ray Addis, 10 years her senior, in Oswego.
Never really cut out to be a farm wife, she worked at both Glenn Berry and Fred Ronald Manufacturing to help support her family, all the while aspiring to be more. She went to work at Labette County Medical Center as a surgical assistant after earning her GED. Continuing to work full shifts, she went on to receive her nursing degree from Labette Community College and later earned a bachelor of science in nursing from Pittsburg State University. In the last 20 years of her nursing career, she was employed at Coffeyville Regional Medical Center.
Goldie was an avid bowler throughout most of her life. She loved walking and browsing flea markets. She liked collecting Campbell Soup memorabilia and, especially, Cabbage Patch Dolls, of which she took great pride in showing to anyone who had a faint interest.
Her husband, Virgil “Bub” Addis, passed away Jan. 30, 1983. On Dec. 23, 1986, she married Harold Kiister in Miami, Oklahoma. He passed away July 11, 2011.
Goldie is survived by four children, Lonie Ray Addis (Crystal), Oswego, Donald Fay Addis (Jackie), rural Oswego, Mable Edythe Hiller (Galen), McCune, Markle Pernell Addis (Jeanie) Belmont, California; seven grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
In addition to her husbands, she was preceded in death by her parents; a granddaughter, Jenifer Russell; a great-grandson, Boyce; and all her siblings, three brothers, Clifford, Charles and William, and four sisters, Violet, Lorene, Mildred and Alene.
A celebration of life may be scheduled at a later date. The family suggests memorials to Bartlett Christian Church. These may be left at or mailed to Forbes-Hoffman Funeral Home, P.O. Box 374, Parsons, KS, 67357.
