Submitted by: Mary Jo Koran

 

 

SIEDENTOP

Alexander

Hines

Perry

Pratt

Riley

Ulmer

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE – December 4, 2001

Goldia M. Siedentop

Aug. 6, 1902 - Nov. 30, 2001

Goldia May Siedentop , 99, of 2975 E. 480 North, Knox, Ind., passed away on Friday, Nov. 30, in her home.

The retired teacher and farmer was born on Aug. 6, 1902, in Boone County, Ind., to Ora and Dora Lee (Pratt) Hines, the eldest of five children. In 1927 she received her bachelor of arts degree from Central Normal College in Danville, Ind., and commenced a teaching career.

She accepted a position at Hamlet High School in Hamlet, Ind., in 1932, teaching commercial subjects, mathematics and English.

She met Walter Siedentop, a local farmer, while she was in Hamlet, and they were married on Aug. 6, 1934, in Hendricks County, Ind., at her parent's home. Together, she and Walter operated a grain and livestock farm in Davis Township, Starke County.

She and Walter had two daughters, Mary Lee and Lenore. She returned to teaching for a period of time during World War II. After Walter's death in 1953, she returned to teaching and obtained her master's degree from Indiana University in 1960.

Goldia enjoyed teaching and took a personal interest in her students whom she held in great affection. She had a lifelong love of classical music, and was an accomplished seamstress and tailor, taking great pride in making clothing for her sister and her children. She fulfilled an enduring interest in art by taking up watercolors in her later life. She loved and had memorized a great deal of poetry, and could recite poems of James Russell Lowell and James Whitcomb Riley, two of her favorite poets. Her children and grandchildren especially enjoyed her highly dramatic renditions of "Li'l Orphan Annie." She was knowledgeable about and loved wild birds, and was an ambitious and energetic gardener. Her tomatoes were legendary and were on the table three meals a day all summer. She took great satisfaction in planting trees, and during her lifetime planted hundreds of trees in various location. She took special joy and delight in her grandchildren, Lee and Laura Nagai, Paul Nagai and Thomas Riley, and in her great-granddaughters, Margaret Ann and Katherine May Nagai, all of whom survive.

She was a founding member of the Country Home Improvement Club (CHI), and designed the club's logo which is still in use. She was also a member of Delta Pi Epsilon, business educators' honor society, and the Farm Bureau of Indiana. She was a member of the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Hamlet, Ind.

She is survived by her sister, Mozella Alexander of Lizton, Ind.; and a brother, Donald Hines, also of Lizton; and by numerous nieces and nephews; her children, Mary Lee Riley of Knox, and Lenore and Robert Perry of Granger, Wyo.

A sister, Lucinda, who died in infancy, and a brother, Walter Hines, preceded her in death, as did her parents.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society or to Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Hamlet.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. (EST) Thursday in Holy Cross Catholic Church, Hamlet, with Rev. Father Anthony Spanley officiating. Burial will be at Fletcher Cemetery, Hamlet.

Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. (EST) Wednesday and from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday in Rannells Funeral Home, Hamlet, where a Rosary service will be held at 7 p.m. (EST) Wednesday.