Casteline Lester, who had a ‘great heart for serving’ Kansas City’s needy, dies at 91
Casteline Lester was no stranger to lending a helping hand. When a mother of two young children was on the verge of living on the street, with nowhere left to turn, Lester did what she had done many times before and opened the doors of her home.
Lester knew the children from the daycare she ran out of her house in Kansas City’s Vineyard neighborhood. Beginning in the mid-1960s, she invited the woman and her two kids to live with her until they could get back up on their feet.
“She kept telling my mom, ‘If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what I would have been doing,” said Camillie Lester-Young, Lester’s daughter, recalling the gratitude the woman often expressed to her mother in the years after.
Lester, remembered as a woman who devoted her life to helping those in need and caring for dozens of Kansas City children on the East Side, died Feb. 20 of natural causes. She was 91.
“She did a lot,” Lester-Young said. “She may not have thought that she was helping a lot of people, but she really did.”
Born Casteline Williams in Charleston, Arkansas, in 1929, she was the oldest of nine children. She grew up helping with the farm, taking care of her younger siblings through household chores like washing and cooking meals for her large family.
Lester grew up in a largely rural area, where many of the women moved away when they sought to begin families of their own, Lester-Young said. So, as a young woman, Lester packed her bags and moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where other family members had gone in search of new opportunities.
In 1949, at 19 years old, she married her husband, George Lester, with whom she had three children. They separated in the late 1950s, but remained friendly, family said. Lester later had two other children.
Lester worked in several different professions. She applied the skills she learned during her younger years on the farm while working for a Kansas City family as a nanny and homemaker. She also made and sold artistic crochet creations featuring butterflies and flowers. But her true passion was taking care of kids, her family said.
“She was like a second mother to me,” said Debbie Jones, 68, Lester’s niece by marriage, who lived with Lester for a time in Kansas City during the 1970s.
For years as a young girl, Jones would take a charter bus from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to spend a summer in Kansas City — a $15 ride back in that day. And she worked through those summers around the house, helping handle the massive laundry loads and keeping the home clean and neat.
When Jones moved back to Arkansas, a single mother of four kids in need of babysitting help, she’d send them to stay with Lester for the summers like she had done.
“When I needed help with my children, she always said, ‘This is home,’” Jones said.
Lester continued to look after children in her home daycare even as she approached her 80s. As late as the early 2000s, she offered the service for just $2 per child per day. Eventually, facing old age and various health issues, her children convinced her to retire.
Over the years, Lester was a member at a few local churches. She often donated time, work, food and money with fundraisers, her daughter said. Her most recent spiritual home was St. Luke’s United Methodist Church of Kansas City, and she frequently sought to attend even after her heath declined.
“She was there even if she was in a great deal of pain,” said Steve Williams, the church’s pastor for the past five years. He added that Lester “had a really great heart for serving” the underprivileged.
Among her finest skills was her cooking, Lester-Young said. She always made a gargantuan amount of food, spending all day in the kitchen preparing meals for her daycare kids, her own children and whoever was staying with the family at the time.
Lester’s table was always full, even when her children spent summers with their father. Her home was often occupied by friends and neighbors and others who came to stay with her when life grew tough. And whenever word got around that she was having a barbecue, her neighbors would usually show up.
For the longest time, Lester’s children thought TV dinners, a popular meal for kids of their day, were an extraordinary treat. It wasn’t until later that they learned their mother had cooked and frozen each meal herself, keeping them on television trays and serving them in wrapped aluminum foil — the same way the store-bought ones looked.
“We didn’t know the difference,” said Lester-Young, with a laugh.
Lester brought a green thumb to Kansas City from down south. Her garden once grew so large it practically consumed the whole yard, her daughter said. She produced enough vegetables to feed the neighborhood, often canning and saving them to give out to those in need or pass along to her extensive family.
“She would do anything for anybody,” said Beverly Williams, Lester’s niece. “If you needed a place to stay, she gave you a place to stay until you got yourself together. She was like the neighborhood queen. She looked out for everybody.”
For a time, Beverly Williams lived right down the street from Lester, her favorite aunt. When Lester was moving out of her home years later, she recalled, a young couple from across the street came by and mentioned how much they loved the flowers from her garden.
Without a second thought, Lester told the couple to dig them out and re-plant them in their own yard.
“And they still have the flowers,” Beverly Williams said. “I go by there and check them out sometimes.”
Lester is survived by her children, Larry Lester, Camillie Lester-Young, Brenda Madden, and Darren Wright-Lester; 17 grandchildren; and 33 great-grandchildren.
Other remembrances
Maretta Berry
Maretta “Tootie” Berry, remembered as a self-sufficient woman with a strong work ethic, died March 13. She was 69.
Born Maretta Terrell in 1952 in Kansas City, Berry was one of five children. She attended area schools, graduating from Lincoln High School in 1970, and later attended the University of California in Los Angeles.
In 1973, she married her husband Chauncey Abrum Berry Jr., with whom she spent 47 years and raised three sons. She was remembered by family as a devoted mother, ensuring her children were well-equipped with knowledge they needed to achieve high success.
In her professional life, Berry began working at a young age with a family dry-cleaning business and later with the McGraw Hill Publishing Company. She spent more than 25 years as a data manager, program analyst and ticket agent with a major U.S. airline. After retiring from the airline, she continued work by starting careers in the telecommunication and computer industries.
Baptized at an early age, Berry was also remembered for her dedication to Oakridge Baptist Church, where she spent more than 20 years. She participated in a variety of women’s groups, also leading youth-group activities alongside her husband.
Berry is survived by her husband, Chauncey A. Berry Jr.; her three sons, Chauncey Abrum Berry III, Elliott Berry and Anthony Berry; two sisters, Phyllis Harris and Nina Kay Henderson; and eight grandchildren.
Leticia Hardy
Leticia Hardy, a devoted mother and nurse remembered for achieving high professional and educational successes despite her own serious health problems, died March 3. She was 45.
Born in 1975 in Kansas City, Kansas, Hardy attended area public and private schools before graduating from F. L. Schlagle High School in 1994.
Hardy started her nursing education at Kansas City Kansas Community College. She later earned a bachelor’s degree from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, and was pursuing a dual master’s degree in nursing and business when she died.
She never missed a beat with her education, her family recalled, even while enduring rounds of chemotherapy, achieving high marks and honors.
During her career, her family said, she worked in several area health care facilities, including Swope Park Health Center, Trinity Nursing & Rehab and Menorah Medical Center.
Hardy is survived by her son, Lavelle M. Caldwell; one grandson, Brayden M. Caldwell; her parents; and three brothers, Steven Sims, Brice McKinley and Brett McKinley.
This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
