Kathleen Sheldon

1939 - 2025

Mary Kathleen "Kate" McCabe Sheldon crossed over at 10:25 a.m. on December 31, 2025. She is reunited with her beloved husband, James Lee Sheldon, who left The Mortal Coil on December 31, 2021. May they both usher in this new year in spirit together. Their surviving children, Earl Sheldon, Amelia Sheldon, Artemis Bayless and Audrey Sheldon, as well as their grandchildren Nolan Sheldon, Madeleine Sheldon, Raven Burns and Abraham Paris send blessings their way.

A published poet, Kate's work has appeared in Chapel Hill Press's Immigration, Emigration, Diversity anthology, Kill Devil's North Carolina International Icarus Literary Journal anthology, The Sunday Suitor Press's Feline Fancy, Long Island's Nassau County Voices in Verse and Clever Fox Literary Magazine. Independently, she studied and wrote poetry for over five decades. Archibald MacLeish wrote of her work, "your poems...I like the feel, which is of firm hands, and the intent, which is of that rarest sort, humility and the glimpses of real skill and the life of the words."

Morgan horses and roses were passions that Kate cultivated over the decades. She raised three pure bred morgans: Misty, Song and Weybridge from foals. Weybridge was an in-hand champion in the show ring. Kate and Jim lived for over thirty years in Greensboro, North Carolina at Fieldgate Farm, which was home to more than 250 roses that Kate planted and took great joy in tending. Given her expertise in heirloom roses, Kate was featured in the Greensboro News & Record and was hired to consult in the redesign of The Queen's Rose Garden at the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, North Carolina.

Mary Kathleen McCabe was born on January 14, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Ruth and John McCabe. She was one of five children, along with Ruth, John, Patricia, and Francis. She spent her childhood and young adult life in Philadelphia and her summers on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. Her family was involved in community theater and Kate spent time singing and performing on stage where her comedic flair was apparent. While there was talk of her attending The Actor's Studio in New York City, the love of writing, animal husbandry and horticulture set her future course. In high school, she won a newspaper essay contest and traveled to Wales; the newspaper published articles about her time there. Kate graduated from the Academy of the Sisters of Mercy and the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women.

After graduation, Kate remained in Philadelphia and was a reporter for The Ambler Gazette and then a researcher and writer for the pharmaceutical company Smith Kline and French. She met James Lee Sheldon through mutual friends when he was stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard. They married and moved to New York state, residing in Fulton, Canton, and Skaneateles, New York before relocating to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Charismatic, whip-smart, creative, strong, sensitive, stylish and beautiful, Kate will long be remembered. Although she often commented on how she loved to be alone, when with others, she always made an impression. Kate declared that the years raising children brought her great joy. After they were grown, Kate often spoke of being happiest in her studio writing, in the garden working, or in the barn with her horses. She was proud of her Irish roots and remained forever a Philadelphian at heart. Her favorite poet was W.B. Yeats and the last concert she attended was The High Kings in March 2024. The pipes were always calling and the Celtic wit and connection to the earth and all things seen and unseen was strong and ever-present in Kate. There was always a sense that Kate had one foot in another world and now she has stepped fully over into that land of mist and mystery. And our hearts go with her.

-Photograph taken and obituary written by Amelia Lee Sheldon.

Triad Cremation & Funeral Service.