Kay Eaton Lieder, age 85, of Cypress, Texas, formerly of Flora, Illinois, passed away Feb. 16, 2026, at her home in Cypress.

      Kay, the daughter of Horald William (H.W.) and Mary (Reaugh) Eaton, was born July 10, 1940, in Flora.

      She graduated from Flora High School in 1958 and entered St. Luke’s School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri. After Kay married Larry Goldsby at the First Christian Church in Flora, they moved to Carbondale, Illinois, where Kay was employed at Doctors’ Hospital while Larry completed SIU’s pre-law program. They moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where Kay worked for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After Larry’s graduation from law school, they moved with their two children, Jeff and Betsy, to Tustin, California.

      The California Veterans Hospital in Long Beach, California, employed Kay, where she continued her nursing career. In the late 1970s and after a divorce, Kay left California. She took a nursing job for the next five years with the medical staff in the American compound of King Fahd Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

      In the 1980s, Kay returned to her Flora hometown to help her mother, Mary Eaton, take care of her dad, H.W., who had Alzheimer’s. For three years while living in Flora, Kay worked at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Effingham, Illinois. When her father died, she moved back to Saudi Arabia to work at the same hospital as before. While caring for the medical health of the king’s wives and children, Kay met Wade Lieder, who was the private pilot flying for the king.

      As the Gulf War (Desert Storm) began in 1991, Kay and Wade flew back to Houston, Texas, where Wade’s extended family lived. They married and purchased a home in Cypress, northwest of Houston.

      In Houston, Kay worked at a hospital in The Woodlands, Texas, for a short time and then at MD Anderson Hospital in the Urology Cancer ward from 1997-2007. After retiring in 2007, she missed nursing work so much that she worked two more years in home health care.

      Caregiving was Kay’s chosen vocation. She was a talented and dedicated nurse who truly loved her work.

      Kay is survived by her husband, Wade Lieder of Houston; one daughter, Betsy Goldsby of Houston; and one sister, Francine Eaton Johnson of Warrenville, Illinois. Several nieces, nephews, and cousins also survive. Preceding her in passing were her parents; her first husband, Larry Goldsby; her son, Jeff Goldsby; her brothers and their wives: Reaugh (Joan) Eaton of Columbus, Indiana, Lee (Mary) Eaton of Prescott, Arizona, and Neil (Shirley) Eaton of Flora.

      A private celebration of life will be announced later.