Goldie E. Boleyn, 92, of Waterloo, died at the Cedar Valley Hospice Home, Wednesday, September 21, 2011.

Goldie Eve Willhite was born December 24, 1918, in Yukon, Missouri, the daughter of Jesse and Alta Mae Boster Willhite. Goldie was one of seven children to grow up on her family’s farm, nine miles from the road.  She and her brothers and sisters would walk or ride a horse thru the woods and over the creek to school.  She graduated from high school in Sommersville, MO, and taught school for a time.  John Deere in Waterloo provided jobs for brothers, first Glen, Dewey and Hewey. Goldie followed them to Waterloo and it was in Waterloo that she met Vern O. Boleyn, and they were married September 14, 1940.  Goldie worked for a laundry service for awhile, but soon Vern and she opened Boleyn Grocery on Edward Street near Longfellow School.  The grocery took seven days a week, and for nine years they lived in the back room of the store. After Vern’s death July 28, 1988, Goldie continued running the store, retiring in 1996 after fifty years.  She even turned her love of collecting antiques to an addition to the store offerings when she sold her finds out of the back room.

Goldie is survived by her daughter Beverly and her husband James Toppin of Apache Junction, AZ and Oelwein; three grandchildren: Michelle Lynn Tucker of Waterloo, Craig Eugene (Robin) Arnold of Cedar Falls, and Rodney Dean (Robin) Toppin of Surprise, AZ; six great grandchildren: Adam and Jessica Arnold, Jennifer and Joseph Tucker, Brandon and Ashley Toppin; two great great grandchildren: Haley Lynn Tucker and Joseph Holt; brother Lennis (LoRetha) Willhite of Waterloo; sister Cleo Wait of Waterloo.  She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, infant son Ronald Eugene Boleyn,  brothers Glen, Dewey and Hewey Willhite, and sister Jewell Oman.