Phyllis Maxine Mlika was born in Ridgeway, Mo., on February 4, 1936, to Joseph and Martha Mlika. She was united in marriage to Leslie Raymond Kinnison in 1955. They had three children: Teresa M. Kinnison, Billy Ray Kinnison of Mt. Moriah, and David Joe Kinnison. Phyllis was a baptized believer in Jesus Christ from an early age and sent her children to Vacation Bible School at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church while they lived in the area.
They lived in Mt. Moriah, where Phyllis and her mother raised chickens and butchered them. The children liked to watch the headless chickens flop around and loved to eat the chicken feet she always cooked.
The family moved to Independence around 1965. Phyllis later began working for Western Electric/AT&T in Lee’s Summit, Mo., assembling electronic parts. After being laid off from AT&T, she got a transfer to another facility, and she and Raymond moved to Phoenix, Arizona, for a couple of years so she could finish her career until retirement.
Phyllis loved to cook and spent many summers canning what Raymond grew in his garden, everything from tomatoes and green beans to pickled okra, and once even some carp that Raymond had caught. She and Raymond spent many summer weekends and vacations at the Lake of the Ozarks, where she would prepare delicious meals of the catfish caught on Raymond’s trotlines.
Many other weekends and holidays were spent going “back home” to Mt. Moriah to be with family.
After retiring, Raymond and Phyllis eventually moved back to the place they always called “home” in Mt. Moriah. She enjoyed spending time quilting at the Baptist Church with Beverly Kinnison and others and loved helping others, making trips to the city with friends and family for shopping, and taking her sister Eva and good friends like Deleta Dinsmore to doctor’s visits.
One of the things she loved best in life was her grandson Joseph, named after her father. She cared for him many nights while his father David worked, and many days he would ride the school bus to grandma’s in Mt. Moriah. She was greatly proud of him.
She cared for Raymond for years after his legs were amputated. 2007 was a very sad year for Phyllis when she lost her good friend Helen Bennett, her brother Robert Mlika, and Raymond, her husband of 52 years, all within a few months. She was stricken with Alzheimer’s/Dementia, and her last years of life were spent in Sunset Home in Maysville, in the Alzheimer’s unit, where sadly she slowly faded away, in recent years struggling to recognize even close family.
Phyllis went to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on March 27, 2024. She is preceded in death by her parents, Joseph and Martha Mlika; husband, Raymond; daughter, Teresa; brothers, Theodore, Dean, Ernest, Robert, and Georgie; and sister, Eva Hart. She is survived by her two sons, Billy and David; and many beloved nieces, nephews, and cousins from both the Mlika and Kinnison families, among others.
Services will be Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church at 1:30 p.m. Visitation will be Tuesday at the church from 12:30 p.m. until service time. Burial will follow the service at the Bohemian Cemetery in Cainsville.
