Philip Nix

Philip Harney Nix, 69, of Kansas City, Missouri, passed away at the VA Medical Center in Kansas City after a long battle with ALS.  Phil was born on January 1st, 1949 in Nowata, Oklahoma to Donna Lea Harney and Lawrence Wayne Nix.  Phil enjoyed the outdoors including rock hunting, music including playing drums, photography, watching and racing sprint cars along traveling.

He graduated from Ellinwood High School in 1967 where he was very active in the school’s marching band. Phil proudly served our nation during the Vietnam War as a Sergeant specializing as an Aero Medic, from which he was awarded the Purple Heart.  In 1980, he married Susan Colleen Nix and together they had two children – Rachel and Erin “Becky”.  He worked as a welder, plumber and on oil wells.  Susan passed away in 2011.  In 2012, Phil married Linda Testerman and moved to the Kansas City area.  During Phil’s final years, as he struggled with ALS, he was cared for at home with the help of both his caregiver Patricia Whitmore and his wife.

Phil is preceded in death by his parents, Lawrence and Donna Lea Nix and his first wife Susan Colleen Nix.  Phil is survived by his wife Linda of Kansas City; his daughter Erin and her husband Adam Hall along with their daughter Allie of Yukon, OK; his daughter Rachel Nix and her daughter Maicie of Wichita, Kansas; stepson Dr. Patrick Layden of St. Louis, Missouri; stepson Jason Layden and spouse Dr. Jonathan Ji of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; mother-in-law Betty Testerman of Kansas City, Missouri; sister-in-law Kathy Chappler of Kansas City, Missouri and numerous other family and friends.

A visitation/celebration of life will be held at Terrace Park Funeral Home in the Lakeside Chapel on Saturday, August 11, 2018 from 2 PM to 4 PM.  A military honors ceremony will be conducted at 2:30 PM.  Donations can be made to the ALS Association of Mid-America at www.alsa-midamerica.org.