Priscilla May Kaiser, 88, of Jasper, Indiana, passed from this life into Heaven, on Saturday, December 9, 2023 in Washington, Indiana. She was born January 1, 1935 in Spencer, Indiana to Anna Elizabeth Hill (Moyes) and Ernest Waggoner. May was born an identical twin with her sister Shirley Fay Waggoner.
May grew up in Greene County, Indiana spending time with her grandparents, Winfield and Dolly Hill. She recalled fond memories of spending long days fishing on the river with her grandfather. May would say that Shirley was her first friend, and that lasted a lifetime. May told stories of switching places with Shirley in adolescents as they were on dates and reminisced of the pair racing cars in Illinois as young women.
At 15, May decided to marry Walter Edwin Kaiser. May would laugh about going originally to Spencer to get married but being denied due to her age. She said she “aged a year” as she and Walter drove to Sullivan where May lied about her age to get a marriage license. May and Walter would settle in Raglesville, Indiana on a small farm where they raised their children Linda, Brenda, William and Wilma. Later in marriage, May and Walter would get into auctioning and eventually bought an auction barn in Farlen. May told stories of traveling across the US and into Mexico to buy things to bring back to the auction.
In 1980, May became a grandmother for the first time. This would be a role that she would treasure across her lifetime. She expressed continual love and pride for her grandchildren, Buddy, Elizabeth, Christopher and Brittany. That love only deepened when she became a great-grandmother to Izabelle, Braden, Amya and Kelsey. The role of grandmother was so important to May that she often became the “grandmother “of her local neighborhood or congregation.
May always had a profound connection to her faith and often said this started as a child with her grandfather’s deep ties to the Christian Church and her mother’s deep ties to the Newberry Nazarene Church. Several years after the loss of her husband, May moved to Jasper, Indiana where she continued to seek out connections in church families. May and her long time roommate, Buster, were active in three churches in Jasper: Redemption Christian Church, Nazarene Church of Jasper and Living Hope Baptist Church.
May is preceded in death by her parents (Anna Moyes and Ernest Waggoner), by her husband (Walter Kaiser), by her sister (Shirley Cox), her son (William “Bill” Kaiser), her daughter (Linda Neely) and her grandson (Christopher Dove).
May’s memory will always be cherished by her surviving family; two daughters: Brenda Dove of Odon, IN and Wilma (Chris) Davis-Miller of Washington, IN; three grandchildren: Buddy Dove of Odon, IN, Elizabeth (Cosby) Hilderbrand of Bloomfield, IN and Brittany (Jacob) Rowe of Washington, IN; four great-grandchildren: Izabelle, Amya and Kelsey Hilderbrand of Bloomfield, IN and Braden Wagler of Evansville, IN; a niece: Monica McCrary of Vincennes, IN and a nephew: Bobby Cox of Vincennes, IN.
Funeral services will be at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at Meng Family Funeral Home in Odon with Pastor Adam Cissell officiating. May will be laid to rest in Walnut Hill Cemetery in Odon.
Family and friends may call from 11:00 AM until the time of service at 1:00 PM on Wednesday at the funeral home.
Arrangements and care were entrusted to Meng Family Funeral Home in Odon. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family online at www.mengfuneralhome.com.
