Katherine "Kay" Louise (Kolisek) Ellis

Fort Worth - Katherine Louise "Kay" Ellis, 89, of Fort Worth died Wednesday, July 22, 2020 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Funeral service will be private.

She was born in Ziegler, Illinois on May 22, 1931 to Frank & Julia Kolisek. She grew up in Ziegler and Benton, Illinois although the family lived in Marshall, Missouri during some of her high school years. She graduated from high school in Benton and attended Southern Illinois University for one year.  She then entered the University of Missouri affiliated St. Louis City Hospital #1 School of Nursing and graduated in September of 1953.  She married Dr. Dick Ellis in 1954 and spent the next two years in London, England where he was a US Air Force medical officer. Their first child was born there & the family returned to St.  Louis for four years for further surgical training. The family moved to Fort Worth in 1960 and she became a member of the Tarrant County Medical Auxiliary.  In 1964 and 1965, the family lived in the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Reynoldsburg while Dr. Ellis was in a Pediatric Surgery Fellowship.  They returned to Fort Worth in 1965 & lived there to the present.

She completed the Nurse Anesthesia program at Harris Hospital and subsequently worked intermittently as a CRNA at W.I. Cook Childrens Hospital, as well as at John Peter Smith Hospital and All Saints Hospital. She was active in Medical Related Auxillaries and was President of them at W.I. Cook Childrens, the Child Study Center (1983), & the Tarrant County Medical Society (1980-81). She was an active volunteer at.W.I. Cook Childrens Hospital & at Cook-Fort Worth Childrens Medical Center.  She was in the original volunteer group at Camp Sanguinity & was a long-time volunteer in the Alexander Eye Clinic at Cook Childrens. In 2009, Cook Childrens Hospital awarded her their Lifetime Achievement Award for her 6500 hours of volunteer work.

She was a very attentive Mother and excellent homemaker as her children attended Public schools in west Fort Worth. This continued as all three attended Texas A&M University and professional schools. She also traveled extensively and visited all of the continents and over 100 countries.  She was an invaluable hostess on the legendary SY SEACLOUD & other ships while her husband was ship physician on 20 "small ship" trips.  She attended surgical meetings regularly  with her husband & was known on a first name basis by many prominent surgeons in the USA and several foreign countries. She·  especially enjoyed outings at a family lake place on Lake Forest Road at Eagle Mountain Lake, and was an excellent hostess for many visiting friends there.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Dick Gibbs Ellis, M.D., a son, Derek Ellis, DDS, her parents, four brothers, and five sisters. 

She is survived by her son, David Ellis, MD of Dallas; her daughter, Anita E. Harton, JD, LLM, of Atlanta Georgia; and by seven grandchildren and seven great-­grandchildren.

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