Phyllis Foster

Phyllis Karola Foster, 97, died April 26, 2020 at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC after a sudden illness at the conclusion of a long, blessed life. Mrs. Foster was born as Phyllis Bernice Reidy on June 26, 1922 in Jersey City, NJ to John Reidy and Helen Hopper Reidy. She graduated in 1940 from North Arlington High School in New Jersey and while working as a secretary at a local union, met her future husband, Joseph Karola. They would move to the South shortly after the close of World War II. Mrs. Foster was a descendant of Joseph Hopkins, who fought in the Revolutionary War and was himself a descendant of Stephen Hopkins, who arrived on the Mayflower and signed the compact that established self-rule among the British settlers. Despite her generations of Yankee roots, Mrs. Foster adapted to the lifestyle, weather, and cuisine of her adopted home in North Carolina. She led a troop of Girl Scouts, raised four daughters, and after her husband’s death, got a job as a tester for a company then called Western Electric, where she worked until her retirement. She and her second husband, Albert Foster, married in 1979. She was a woman of faith and for decades attended Calvary Baptist Church, where she was a devoted Bible study member. She bowled at Northside Bowling Lanes and served as the treasurer for the Winston Triad Chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America. She loved to sew. One Halloween she fashioned a body-length Pink Panther costume for one granddaughter and a full elephant get-up for another. She proudly displayed pictures of her nine grandchildren on the piano in her living room and could always be relied upon for a pimiento cheese sandwich, a sweet gherkin pickle, and a glass of Wink in a jelly jar. She did yoga in the ’80s, before yoga pants were invented, and enjoyed coffee and hot tea, but only out of a china cup. She cooked an unparalleled lasagna, one for which her daughters guard the recipe by threat of bodily harm. As requested, she made a lasagna three years ago for a family holiday cook-off with her daughter, a competition declared mostly a tie, depending on how spicy the judges liked their Italian sausage. Mrs. Foster is survived by four daughters, Nancy Evdoxiadis, of Advance, NC, Cynthia White, of Winston-Salem, NC, Susanne Reary of Mesa, AZ, and Peggy Porter of Hartwell, GA; as well as the aforementioned nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her brother, Ralph Reidy in 1999, her sisters Helen Amendola in 2006 and Alice Wheeler in January of 2020, as well as her first husband, Joseph Karola, in 1972, and her second husband, Albert Smith Foster, Jr., in 2006. She also was preceded in death by many of those she listed in her thoroughly practical “last wishes” document as possible pallbearers and helpers. When a grandson once assured her, she would make it to 100, she responded, “Oh, I hope not.” Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Lupus Foundation of America, put out a birdfeeder and bowl a frame for Mrs. Foster. Online condolences may be made at www.hayworth-miller.com