Katherine O. "Kathy" Kirk

Katherine O. Kirk “Kathy” was born 95 ½ years ago to a mom and dad that were second generation Czechoslovakian immigrants in the Union Town, Pennsylvania area. It’s believed her mother was actually born on the ship coming over from Europe.

Kathy passed away from natural causes in the early morning hours on Friday, August 2nd at her residence at Bayshore in Hilton Head, SC, with her daughter Carolyn at her side. All of Kathy’s children, her dear niece “Dee-Dee” (who grew up across the street from Kathy and the family) and Joey (Carolyn’s Husband) were able to be with Kathy during the last week of her life. There were plenty of laughs and tears all week and Kathy was interacting with them up until the last 36-48 hours of her life. 

Kathy was raised alongside her 6 siblings by her no-nonsense mother Mary. Kathy’s father, Frank, was seriously injured in a work accident when the children were young. The family was able to survive this difficult hand dealt to them by subsistence farming and all of the kids and Mary working to help make ends meet. 

Kathy married William Kirk “Bill,” who also had extremely humble beginnings, and he lost his mother at a young age. Together they brought 4 children into this world, Bob, Doug, Carolyn, and Donald. Kathy and Bill provided their children with a middle-class life in Warren and Howland, Ohio. Kathy and Bill both taught their children good midwestern values and sincere humility, based a lot on their own childhood experiences.

 Despite their dad claiming otherwise, it was Kathy who helped teach the children the love and know-how of cooking and particularly baking. A few of Kathy’s children and grandchildren happily carry on the tradition of Eastern European Christmas baking that she loved to do for so many years. She lost Bill in 1984 to cancer. She continued to live in Ohio managing the house and yard all by herself until she moved to Colorado to live with Carolyn and Joey in 2010. In 2019 Carolyn and Joey moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina and Kathy happily moved with them, always having dreamt of living near the ocean. 

She is preceded in death by Bill, her parents, and her siblings, Christine, Mary Ann, Evelyn, Frank Jr., and Charlie. She is survived by her youngest sister, Sue, and her four children and their families. 

Services are to be held at St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish, Blessed Sacrament in Warren, Ohio on Saturday September 21st at 10:00am. There will be a receiving line for one hour prior to the service to speak with friends and family. Entombment following 12:30pm service in Crown Hill Cemetery in Vienna, Ohio. 

The family requests no flowers but instead suggests any gifts to be made to a Hospice Program of choice. The family wishes to express their heart-felt gratitude to Hospice Care of the Lowcountry. Their help was critical to Kathy’s children and to Kathy as she passed from her earthly bonds to Our Lord in heaven.