CATHERINE LOVERNE MORISON REHART

Cathy, age 73, of Oregon City, Oregon passed away on September 6, 2013. A Public Memorial celebrating her life will be held at Warnor's Theater on October 14, 2013, in Fresno at 5:30 p.m. Born in Fresno, Ca. on March 29, 1940, Cathy was descended from a long line of Fresnans and was a third-generation graduate of Fresno High School. Education, family and friends were her passion throughout her life. She graduated from Fresno State College in 1962, and during that same year she married B. Schyler Rehart, with whom she had three children. Cathy took an active role in their children's education, working with the local PTA and serving as a den mother for the Cub Scouts. She was also a founding member, and later a President and Secretary, of the Fresno Historical Society's auxiliary La Paloma Guild, with whom she put together annual historic home tours. Deeply concerned about the preservation of historic sites, she was appointed to the City of Fresno's Historic Preservation Commission and served as its First Vice-Chairwoman. In 1984 she became a member of Fresno Historical Society Board and chaired its Preservation Committee, which became an active force for historic preservation in Fresno. She later went to work at the Historical Society's office as the Education/Information Director. In 1990, Cathy struck out on her own as an independent writer and began researching and composing a series of vignettes of local history that were read on KMJ as "The Valley's Legends and Legacies." In 1996 a selection of those stories were published in a volume that would be the first of six such books, several of which won local book awards and sold many thousands of copies. In 2000 she also published "The Heartland's Heritage", an illustrated history of Fresno County. A much sought-after speaker, she gave hundreds of public talks to many local groups, and she played a key role in developing a documentary for Fresno's sesquicentennial celebration in 2006. The next year the Historical Society honored her with the History Education Award for a lifetime of advocacy on behalf of history education and preservation. A high point in her professional life came when the mayor of Fresno proclaimed June 28, 2012, "Cathy Rehart Day" in celebration of her life's work and achievement. A cancer survivor, Cathy was told by her physician to leave her beloved San Joaquin Valley in 2007 because of her asthma, and she moved to be with her daughter's family in Oregon City. Despite only returning to Fresno a few times, she continued to research and write new material for "Legends and Legacies" even as her cancer returned in 2011. Her last original work was produced in June 2013, while she was in hospice care. She is survived by her son, Bill Morison of Grand Rapids, Michigan; her daughter, Anne Rehart, of Waianae, Hawaii; her daughter Catherine "Kate" Byerly of Oregon City, Oregon; her grandchildren, Courtney Byerly of Oregon City; KiRé, Berlin, and Meri Catherine Rehart Kletee, all of Waianae, Hawaii; and her cousin Victoria Morison Cena of Lake Oswego, Oregon. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Catherine Loverne Morison Rehart to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.