Priscilla Ann Meinheit

From where she sat in her recliner in the living room at the beginning of October, Priscilla Meinheit directed her family on how she wanted things decorated for that month.

Priscilla knew where everything was, even if the system didn’t always make sense to anyone else. Her daughter, Annette Meinheit, said her mother would give directions on where she kept everything, “She would say, ‘Okay, in this cabinet, in the second drawer, three placemats down,’ and whatever it was would be right there.”

She had carefully thought out decorations for every occasion for most of the surfaces in her home.

“July was watermelons, September was for sunflowers, then of course pumpkins for October, added turkeys for Thanksgiving, and then 15 totes for Christmas,” said her son Andrew Meinheit.

Priscilla passed away peacefully at her home on Saturday, October 28, 2023, at age 71. She was born December 30, 1951, in Independence, Missouri to Fred and Rebecca Doster, the second of four children. Her youngest brother, Ben Doster, remembers his eldest sister always having a great sense of humor; she had a sign on her door that read, “Enter at your own risk. A teenager lives here.”

Through church friends Priscilla met as a preteen, she took a summer trip to a farm in Illinois, where she met her future husband, Ronald Meinheit. He and his brother, Dave Meinheit, stood on top of a chicken coop, and Ron claims that it was his brother who threw corn cobs at Priscilla and her sister Kathy Bless, née Doster.

They were married in Kansas City, MO, on September 6, 1974, and that month, she joined Ron at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in Michigan. Priscilla and Ron adopted their first cat together, Samson, that summer in 1975. He was their adventure cat, and “he went everywhere with us” to temporary duty stations at different bases around the West Coast in California and Washington or on their vacations, said Ron.

Priscilla, too, was up for different adventures. “She never tried cross-country skiing, but I could get her on the back of the snowmobile going on trails,” Ron relayed the story to their two surprised children in the living room of the family home.

As a pilot in the Air Force, Ron could be gone for stretches of time, and with Priscilla on her own a lot, she wanted something to do. She began volunteering for the Red Cross at the hospital on the base, helping the staff with things they didn’t have time to do, assisting wherever she could. She encouraged other wives to volunteer with her, and Ron said, “Before long, she was the head of the Red Cross at that base.”

The couple moved to Independence after Ron left the Air Force, buying their home together in April of 1981, a home they always shared, along with their children and many more cats through the years. Priscilla decorated their house in the meticulous way she had, making many of the adornments herself. She came from a family of creatives and makers; her parents had a pottery business, and Priscilla nurtured many creative outlets, like painting, knitting, crocheting, sewing, embroidery, and quilting. The house's walls hold many pieces she painted in the style of Bob Ross.

Directing the choreography of decorations would come naturally to Priscilla; she had spent many years as a choir director at different congregations she had joined. While she grew up, music was often in her home, through choir or piano lessons, with the family traveling to perform at different churches.

The sewing taught by her mother became a lifelong passion for her. She loved to discuss her fleet of sewing machines; six in total, while bonding with the medical staff at the University of Kansas Hospital during her cancer journey. At chemotherapy treatments, she kept herself busy by knitting dishcloths in various colors, and she would hand these out to the staff, sure to note which side was scrubby. This continued as her health worsened from uterine cancer; she ensured that Ron remembered to bring her bag of completed ones to give to those she met during a hospital stay and to the nurses who came to her home.

Her daughter Annette said, “She always had a craft project, something to show you that she was working on.” Priscilla sewed clothing, purses, and other practical or decorative items like mug rugs, eventually picking up machine embroidery, and in the last five years, she also started quilting.

Priscilla retired from the Independence School District after 27 years in 2022. She started working at the schools once Andrew was in school to keep busy. Her decorating skills were well known at the central office, with the different pieces she made or curated adorning her desk.

Friend and former co-worker Jennifer Lane said, “She was always known for having everything decorated so perfectly, she had just such a way of arranging things, nothing was just thrown together, it was meticulously planned."

Priscilla was also known for her humor, which could be dry, sarcastic, and very funny.

Lane told a story about receiving a selfie from Priscilla, where she had captioned a photo of herself in a wig with bright pink hair, that it was her new look for work the next day. Lane said, “I was in awe of her spirit; as she fought this horrible fight with her cancer, she still found time to make jokes, sending her friends pictures of herself in different wigs. Just finding the humor and sending a picture in this off-the-wall color with the funniest expression on her face.”

She continued that Priscilla “just had such a spirit for life, everything she did, she put it all in, whether it was family, whether it was cooking or decorating, she was putting it all in there. She was a good friend and a good person.”

Priscilla is survived by her husband, Ron; daughter Annette Meinheit of Reno, Nev., son Andrew Meinheit (Stephanie) of Lee’s Summit; three cats, Pumba, Puffin, Grayson; a sister, Kathy Bless (Larry) of Liberty; brothers Lawrence Doster of Overland Park, Kan., and Ben Doster (Jerri Lynn) of Higginsville; five grand-cats and one grand-dog. The Visitation will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, November 3, 2023, at Speaks Suburban Chapel 18020 East 39th St. S Independence, MO 64055. Pastor John Crane will officiate the Funeral Service at 2 p.m., and Interment will follow at 1818 N River Blvd, Independence, MO 64050.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks those who wish to donate to the Project Linus Kansas City Chapter http://www.projectlinus.org/donations/, something Priscilla began volunteering with after retirement