Katharine Marie Hensler White

1946 - 2022

Katharine Marie Hensler White
February 17, 2022
Katharine Marie Hensler White passed away peacefully on February 17 at age 75 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's Disease. She was surrounded by her family with her favorite radio station playing, reminding her of easier days enjoying friends, music, and the arts in the places she loved and called home—New Haven, New Orleans, and Vinalhaven, Maine—throughout her adult life. Beautifully, she passed at 8:23pm, mirroring her August 23rd wedding date.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Kathy grew up in Chatham, New Jersey. She graduated from Connecticut College with a BA in English in 1968. During her freshman year at college, she met her beloved husband Kenneth White at an inter-college mixer. That night she told her roommate she had met the man she would marry, which she in fact did in the summer of 1969. Upon graduation she and Ken moved to New Orleans, where her first son Matthew was born. They subsequently moved to New Haven in 1973, where her second son Barrett was born, for what was supposed to be a short period while Ken completed his medical residency. This short stay turned into a much longer chapter after she was accepted into the Yale School of Art MFA program for painting. Her artistic life blossomed during this time and Kathy became a central figure in New Haven's thriving art scene. She was a founding member of Artists Working in New Haven, which organized a yearly group show highlighting the vast creativity of the city through many of its most accomplished artists. She was also represented by and showed regularly at the Munson Gallery.
In 1994, Kathy and Ken finally moved back to New Orleans where they had intended to return in the early 1980s. She quickly established herself as a significant artist there first showing with Marguerite Oestreicher and then Gallery Bienvenu. Beyond her gallery exhibitions, she was also included in group exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Center New Orleans. Kathy was enraptured by the storied music and food of New Orleans, and often danced late into the night with family and friends.
Seeking refuge after Hurricane Katrina, Kathy and Ken found a quiet paradise on Vinalhaven, Maine, where they lived full time for five years before New Orleans once again drew them back. They would continue to spend extended summers on Vinalhaven surrounded by friends, until her illness no longer allowed her to travel. Throughout her time on Vinalhaven she exhibited at the New Era Gallery.
Known for her irreverent humor, empathy, compassion, formidable talent and joie de vivre, Kathy was a beloved figure, role model and mentor to her friends and colleagues who spanned many decades older and younger than she. She was preceded in death by her parents, Arthur and Marie Hensler, and brother Peter. Her memory will live on through her family including her husband, sons, loving daughter-in-laws Jana and Anne, her five cherished grandchildren: Catherine, Adlai, Maxwell, Dashiell, and Benjamin, and sister Julie as well as the vibrant life-long friendships she forged and held so dear. Rarely has one person enriched so many lives. As one close friend wrote upon her passing, "She was a rare butterfly God fashioned from some precious stuff he keeps only for special creations of remarkable strength and beauty."
A celebration of Kathy's life will take place on April 10th in New Orleans. Should you want to remember Kathy through a donation please support the Alzheimer's Association at alz.org or another Alzheimer's foundation of your choice.