Lily Winters

Lily H.J. Winters, aged 79, of Agusta, KS, made her grand exit from life on September 14, 2025.

She is predeceased by her parents, Agatha Anna Belle Steincross Winters and Frederick Theodore Winters, and her brother, Jack Winters. Lily is survived by her daughter Chalis Montgomery and granddaughter Gwendolyn Montgomery of Bethlehem, Georgia, her sisters Joy Morgan and Liz Meisner, treasured friends, countless students, strays, and lost causes, including two fully unredeemable ex-husbands.

Lily was a graduate of Cottey College in Nevada, MO and continued her studies at SMSU and Kansas State. She completed her education as ABD in a PhD from the University of Mississippi.

Lily began teaching at Head Start in Helena, MT, then moved on to Nashville, TN where she taught social studies. After a brief time in Arizona, Lily became an Assistant Professor at Livingston State University in Livingston, AL, where she was finally able to pursue her true passions as an artist.

In 1980's Livingston, Lily fully embraced her art career, adding figure study to the curriculum and displaying her works at home and in public art shows. Embracing her role as the subject of town gossip, she relished the chance to wear pantsuits to church.

Lily fled Alabama to continue her art career at Dickinson State University in Dickinson, ND and finished by working as a middle and high school teacher in Missouri and Kansas. In retirement, she was an avid reader and enjoyed entertaining friends at home using her best china for casual meals, as she said, "just because I can."

She made a lifelong habit of picking up scraps to use in art: dried flowers, odd bits of paper, tools, and more. If there were ever an apocalypse, she would have been prepared to make art indefinitely. Lily also habitually collected people who needed help, and her home was often a revolving door of domestic violence survivors, traveling relatives, students with nowhere to go, friends, and neighbors.

A private graveside memorial service was held October 18, 2025 at Click Cemetery, in Nevada, MO. In lieu of flowers, please remember her by making art and helping someone who needs it.

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