Irene Neis Kiester

Funeral services for Irene Minnie Neis Kiester, 96, Wellsville, will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Wilson’s Funeral Home in Wellsville. Burial will follow in Wellsville Cemetery.Mrs. Kiester died Monday, Nov. 3, 2008, at Wellsville Retirement Community.She was born Oct. 18, 1912, near Wellsville, the daughter of Albert F. and Anna Marie Mary Brecheisen Neis. She attended elementary school at rural Vespertine School and graduated from Wellsville High School in 1930. She was valedictorian of the Douglas County eighth-grade graduating class and also of her Wellsville High School graduating class. She later attended Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia and graduated with honors from Kansas University with a Bachelor of Science in education in 1941. She was a former resident of Basehor.She was a teacher in the rural Douglas County schools of Adeline, Prospect and Hesper, where she coached basketball, for eight years. She was later a business education teacher at Linwood Rural High School and then taught in high schools in Wellsville and Basehor. She retired in 1972. She taught for 25 years in the Basehor-Linwood School District in Basehor.Mrs. Kiester worked as a secretary during the summer months at Sunflower Ordinance Works east of Lawrence and the U.S. Naval Air Station in Olathe during World War II.Mrs. Kiester was a member of Pi Lambda Theta national education honorary sorority, Miller Scholarship Hall, Basehor United Methodist Church, Basehor United Methodist Women, Kansas University Alumni Association, Order of Eastern Star of Wellsville and a life member of the Kansas State Retired Teachers Association.She was also a member of the Leavenworth Area Retired Teachers Association, AARP, National Retired Teachers Association, Leavenworth County Historical Society, Basehor Community Library, Basehor Historical Museum Association, Today Club of Kansas State Republican Party, National Republican Party and Leavenworth County Republican Party.Mrs. Kiester served as Leavenworth County precinct committeewoman for many years and on the Kiwanis Foundation Scholarship Commission. She was listed in the national publication “Leaders of American Secondary Education.”She married Ward L. Kiester in 1946. He died in 1983. Mrs. Kiester also was preceded in death by a son, Ward L. Kiester II, in 1972.The family will receive friends from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home before the services.The family suggests memorials to the Basehor Historical Museum Association, sent in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box 486, Wellsville, KS 66092.