Kathryn Ann Thomas was born at Saint Luke's Hospital in Altadena California on February 26th, 1947 to Marvin and Audrey Thomas. She was a preemie baby and had to spend extra time in the hospital but was otherwise healthy. Her parents took her home to live in Sierra Madre where she was eventually joined by her sister Judy Lee, and brother, John David.

After a turbulent childhood which resulted in her mother leaving the family, Kathryn spent time living with her grandparents in Sierra Madre, while her siblings lived with an uncle and aunt in San Diego.

In the summer of 1960, Marvin married the wonderful Lorene and they were able to bring the family together again. Lorene had a son named Danny and they became a big happy blended family with four children. They spent many weekends and summers camping, fishing, water skiing in the local mountain lakes and the Colorado river.

While at Pasadena High School, she volunteered part time in the school nurse office. The school nurse took her under her wing and encouraged her to pursue a career in nursing. She attended Pasadena Junior College, and earned her LVN license. After graduation she got a job at Arcadia Methodist Hospital. She worked as a nurse in a variety of roles over the years from nursing homes to temporary school nurse at Fallbrook High School, La Paloma and Maie Ellis Elementary. She was a caring and devoted Hospice nurse who helped provide comfort to patients at the end of their lives.

She met and married the love of her life, Thomas Michael in 1972. They met at a young adult bible study group at Sierra Madre Congregational Church. Kathryn baked a lemon meringue pie and took it to the group. Thomas wanted to know who had brought the pie and the rest is history. They were married in July of 1972 and recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary, complete with lemon meringue pie.

Family was always her core focus and passion, however, so she gave up nursing to raise her two children. Sarah Lynn was born in 1974 in Arcadia and John Michael was born in 1979 in San Diego. When Sarah was two, Kathryn and Thomas moved from Sierra Madre to rural Fallbrook. They were looking for a slower pace of life and a great place to raise a family. They purchased a fixer upper and got to work. They ploughed up the back yard and planted a tremendous garden and they added onto the house to make it work for the family. Kathryn was fiercely protective and proud of her family. She would work tirelessly to ensure that her husband and children were well cared for and thriving. Even if that meant she had to slip chopped prunes into "chocolate cookies" and tofu into guacamole.

Kathryn found true joy and happiness as a grandmother to three granddaughters. She travelled to England to meet the first two, and cared for those two when number three was born. She changed diapers, made food, sat on the floor to do puzzles, played with shaving cream, and read books to her favorite girls.

If you knew Kathryn you knew that she also had not just a green thumb but green hands. She could make anything not just grow but thrive. Over the years she not only grew food, but raised chickens. She loved her happy chickens and treated them like family. Living rurally meant that we often had snakes passing through our property. Kathryn had no fear of snakes. She would pick them up with her bare hands, put them down gopher holes, and or relocate them safely.

Kathryn was a friendly, outgoing, social person who loved to meet new people. She knew the names of all the cashiers at Major Market, the bank, and post office. She would walk right up to people and introduce herself to them, "Hi my name is Kathy, I'm from Fallbrook." She even introduced herself to complete strangers on the London Underground, much to their bemusement and to ours.

Last but not in any way the least, Kathryn loved Jesus. She and her husband gave generously of their time and energy at Community Baptist Church in Fallbrook. Together they looked after the buildings, ran the nursery and cared for the people who  attended. She lived a life in service to others, always putting their needs before her own.

While we are sad that our Wife/Mom is no longer with us we are so happy knowing that she is in heaven with Jesus and is no longer in pain. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All of these things are gone forever." Rev. 21:4.

Kathryn is survived by her husband Thomas, daughter Sarah and son-in-law Duane, son John and daughter-in-law Lisa. Also grandaughter Madeline and husband Israel, granddaughter Rowena, and granddaughter Naomi and husband Daniel.