Kathleen Ann "Kathy Fickes" Wiltrout

KATHLEEN ANN FICKES WILTROUT OBITUARY

Kathleen Ann "Kathy" Fickes Wiltrout of Jeromesville, Ohio, went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ on July 4, 2025. She was born in the Fickes Funeral Home in Jeromesville, on October 18, 1948, to Rodney C. and Glorine Heffelfinger Fickes.

She was graduated from Hillsdale High School in 1966, attended Kent State University for one year, and was graduated from Ashland College (later to become Ashland University) in May 1975, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education. She received her Master's Degree from Marygrove College in Michigan, in 1996, and completed forty hours of post-graduate work from Andrews University by 2009.

She was a substitute teacher for eleven years for Hillsdale, Ashland City, Mapleton, and Loudonville school systems, as well as the Ashland County West Holmes Career Center. She began teaching kindergarten at Hillsdale Elementary School in 1988, and retired in July 2013. She was the Hillsdale Junior High Cheerleading Advisor from 1989 to 1994, and the Hillsdale High School Advisor from 1993 to 2001.

She was a member of the Jeromesville United Methodist Church from birth. She served as Circle Captain for two years, Sunday School teacher from 1965 to 1966, and again from 1969 to 2025. She also directed the SONshine Children's Choir from 1974 until the choir ended in 2014 and directed the Bell Choir from 1993 to 2013. She also taught and lead the music for the summer Vacation Bible School program from 1974 until 2024.

For several years, she was a member of the Mini-Growers Garden Club and the Jeromesville Firebelles, an auxiliary to the Jeromesville Fire Department.

She was one of the founders of Hillsdale Safety Town and served from 1981 to 1985. Then, she became the Co-Director of the program in 1988, when she was hired as a kindergarten teacher for Hillsdale Local Schools. She continued in this position until 2013.

She also received her Funeral Director's License in 1974, and helped from time to time at the Fickes Funeral Home.

While Kathy was a very accomplished woman, the titles she cherished the most were Mother, Grandmother, and Friend. She loved her grandchildren and children fiercely and doted on them continually. She was an excellent homemaker, cook, and baker, who made sumptuous meals and treats for all to enjoy. She poured all her love for her family into making holidays, birthdays, and other celebratory occasions special, by selecting thoughtful gifts and putting all the finishing touches on the dinner table to make the meals a feast for the eyes as well as the stomachs. A generous soul, she would bestow little gifts on friends and family alike, and she also lavished love and attention on the hundreds of kindergarten students she had over the years. She was beloved in turn by those students, who would visit her in her classroom on their lunch break, after they had progressed to higher grades. As these children grew, many times as adults they would encounter her and tell her how much they had enjoyed her and what a blessing she had been to them. She was also dearly loved by her Sunday School students, and she reveled in teaching them all the wonderful Bible stories about our good and gracious God. Every week, she would plan carefully her Sunday School lesson, even when there may not be any children attending. She wanted to be ready to tell them about the God she loved. We could extol the virtues of our mother for quite some time, but there are not enough words to capture them.

She is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Jon (Beth Anne) Wilson, two sons, Todd (Michele) Wiltrout, and Brice (Sarah) Wiltrout, and three wonderful and much-adored grandsons, Nicholas Todd Wiltrout, Stephen Rodney Wiltrout, and Hayden James Wiltrout. She liked to remind us that she had always wanted six children, and she was very pleased when her three birth children married and brought the other three into her life.

Also surviving is a brother, Don E. Fickes, of Jeromesville, a sister-in-law, Kathy Fickes of Newark and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Walter and Mabel Fickes and Ralph and Pearl Heffelfinger; her parents, Rodney C. and Glorine Fickes; her beloved sister-in-law, Candy Fickes; and her adored brother, James Philip "Phil" Fickes.

Funeral services will be at 1:00 p.m., on Saturday, July 12, 2025, at the Jeromesville Methodist Church with the Reverend Dan Minor officiating. Burial will be in the Jeromesville Cemetery. Friends may call at the Jeromesville Methodist Church at 11:00 a.m., until the funeral begins.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Jeromesville Methodist Church, P.O. Box 116 Jeromesville, OH 44840, or to the Jeromesville Fire Department Association, P.O. Box 102 Jeromesville, OH 44840.

Fickes Funeral Home in Jeromesville assisted the family with arrangements.

Online condolences may be made at www.fickesfuneralhome.com.

While our hearts are broken, we are filled with gratitude and love for the mother and grandmother she was and will be remembered for being. We are comforted with the knowledge that the Lord has defeated death and the grave, and one day, the Lord Himself will wipe the tears from our faces, and we all will be healthy, happy, and whole to enjoy Him and each other for all eternity.