Catherine Elizabeth King

Our sister, Catherine Elizabeth (Hermann) King, was a summer girl. Born October 30, 1934, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she died a day into summer, June 21, 2024. She was 89, preceded in death by her older sister, Elinor, nicknamed Lorchy. Cathy leaves behind her brothers Fred, 87, and Eric, 76, and her sister-in-law, Connie. The three older siblings looked after their much younger little brother, and I appreciate it today. Our parents were Frederick, a renowned botanist, and Dorothy, a devoted mother with a degree in microbiology, who later became a scientific librarian.

In a world healing from the Depression, Cathy grew to seek and love artful things—clothes, jewelry and later, houses—more than Lorchy, who loved critters and walks in the Maryland woods, and Freddy, who grew to love cars and mechanics, later a skilled artisan of fine archery bows. Eric, who loved camping in the woods, became a career junior-high teacher.

It wasn’t long in high school before Cathy met handsome Sonny King, who loved sports, and later, Cathy, and they became a handsome couple. Soon after high school they were married in 1952. I was their ring-bearer. They soon moved to Salisbury, Maryland, before Sonny’s advancement in his insurance company led them to Wilmington, Delaware. Cathy learned to decorate beautifully and to cook wonderful Southern dishes. They both loved visits to the ocean.

Sonny’s further advancement brought a major move to Puerto Rico, where Cathy decorated a new home and began to love music, learning to play guitar and sing. She also took classes in painting. After ten years in Puerto Rico, Sonny and the Southern Belle moved to Savannah, Georgia, and later to Charlotte, North Carolina. Cathy worked as an administrative assistant. They took up square-dancing around the Southeast, with Cathy sewing her outfits. They also enjoyed golf, bowling, deep-sea fishing, crabbing and horse races.

Cathy was always an artist. Like her mother and her sister, and their paintings adorned the family’s walls. Cathy also enjoyed doing cross-stitch, some of which she framed and hung or covered her pillows. She became an avid gardener, and loved the birds who came to visit.

Sonny, now a vice president of his insurance company, had to move to Edmund, Oklahoma, and again that meant a beautiful large house and a lovely garden, with green fields all around. Cathy’s penchant for decorating and art grew stronger, and their home resembled the pages of the magazine, Southern Living.

There was another step toward a Southern ideal: Sonny’s retirement and their love of the ocean brought them again to North Carolina, where they had her dream home built on the Emerald Coast. The ocean was blue, the seafood fresh, and the décor, sublime. Music called, and Cathy joined the Emerald Coast Chorale and sang Mozart, Handel and Christmas carols to congregations in the area.

Sonny died in his late seventies in 2007 when Cathy was 73. Because they had no children, she decided to move to Colorado, where her sister Lorchy and “little” Rick lived. The Southern Belle was comfortable in her patio home filled with her lovely antiques. It was a quiet, comfortable life: Cathy enjoyed visiting and dining with us, and especially savored desserts! She was a devotee of Southern barbecue and seafood and was a wonderful cook.

In 2014 a medical emergency led to another, and final, home, Collinwood Assisted Living, where she moved in 2015, then 80 years old. It was a wise move, as she met good friends there, continued her artwork. Two of her bird paintings were selected for the Larimer County Office on aging for their Residents’ Rights Month posters. She greatly appreciated the staff, who looked after her wonderfully until she passed away in her sleep. Her family certainly remains grateful to Collinwood.