Cuba - Catherine Elizabeth Griffiths Stephens, 91, died Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, in Bangor, Maine, after a valiant struggle against Alzheimer's disease.
She was born Sept. 6, 1918, in Cuba, Ill., to William Bradley Griffiths, a coal miner born in Lancashire, England, and Maude Moore Griffiths, whose ancestors fought for American independence from Britain.
When she was 6, she moved with her family to Peoria, Ill. In 1936, when she was 18, within 24 hours of one another, her father died from black lung disease and her 13-year-old brother, Billy, died from a strep throat infection. Her older brother was married with a family of his own, and she and her mother went to work to survive the Great Depression.
On April 1, 1939, she married blue-eyed John Howard Stephens of Villisca, Iowa. When he was ordered overseas with the U.S. Army in 1944, she returned to Peoria with their newborn twin daughters to live out the duration of World War II with her mother and her mother's sister, Olladene.
After the war, in 1947, she and her husband and daughters moved to barren acreage north of Boulder, Colo., where they built a basement house. Over the next 52 years they carried rocks, dug cactus, killed rattlesnakes, fought prairie fires and flash floods, planted lilacs, had a second set of twins and ultimately achieved their dream of a comfortable house in a grove of Chinese elm, Russian olive, hackberry, blue spruce, black walnut, maple, mountain ash and peach trees.
Katie to her family, Kay to her colleagues, she worked as a secretary for Seagram's Distillery and Laidlaw Steel and Wire in Peoria and for Esquire magazine in Boulder; as a medical secretary for the Boulder Medical Center; and as an administrative assistant for the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder. She retired in 1981 as the education and training officer for the Boulder installation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In the 1970s, her mother moved to Boulder to live with her, and she cared for her mother for almost 20 years until her mother's death in 1989 at age 98. For 30 years, a good part of it while working full time, she took classes whenever she could at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and in 1996, at the age of 77, she earned her bachelor's degree in history.
In 1999, her husband of 60 years died. She lived on alone for three more years until her unequivocal intent to stay in the home she and her husband had built no longer could be safely sustained. In 2002, at the age of 84, she moved to Bangor and embarked on her final work, to live as an autonomous and respected being with dignity and a fully intact sense of self in the face of the relentless, incomprehensibly intrusive and ravaging toll of Alzheimer's disease.
She loved her family, her friends, music, dancing, reading, dogs, chocolate, penny stocks, wheat pennies, genealogy, travel, political argument and fun.
She was a refuge and a guide for her children and, ultimately, a model of indomitable courage.
She was predeceased by her parents; her brothers, Lewis Stanley Griffiths and John William Griffiths; and a great-granddaughter, Madelyn Grace Taylor.
She is survived by her children, twins Cheryl Lynn Vincent (and husband, Dennis) of Northfield, Minn., and Catherine Leigh McCarthy (and husband, John) of Bangor, Maine, and twins Joy Ellen Taylor of Florissant, Mo., and John William Stephens of Fort Collins, Colo.; 11 grandchildren, Cheryl Vincent, Stephen Vincent, Liam McCarthy, Gavin McCarthy, Robin Wilson, Matthew Taylor, Jannette Cohen, Thomas Taylor, Renee Taylor, Patrick Stephens and Levi Stephens; and by 11 great-grandchildren, William and Kayleigh Abbott, Jadelyn, Ryan and Devon Vincent, Devon Stephens, Orrin, Nolan and Olivia Wilson, and Rachel and Olivia Taylor.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, at Henry-Lange Memorial Home in Cuba, Ill., with the Reverend Steve Knudson officiating. Viewing will precede the services at 10 a.m. She will be buried with her husband, parents, brothers, grandparents and great-grandparents in the Cuba Cemetery, in Cuba, Ill.
Contributions in memory of Catherine Stephens can be made to the Alzheimer's Association, Maine Chapter, 170 U.S. Route 1, Suite 250, Falmouth, ME 04105; or to your local Alzheimer's Association.
Condolences can be made at www.henrylange.com.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
5 Entries
October 30, 2009
oh my goodness, what a beautiful story. You all must be so incredibly proud of her. I wish i had known her!!
October 28, 2009
What an absolutely loving & inspirational tribute & memorial you have shared for this incredible woman. Thank you for sharing her life & times with us. She truly loved & was truly loved.
October 27, 2009
To Whomever wrote this lovely obituary,
Catherine was an exceptional person and I was deeply touched by her story. Thank you for sharing this small snipit of her life with all of us.
October 26, 2009
Leigh,
I was shocked and saddened to hear of your Mom's passing. It was a true pleasure to get to know your mom and care for her. she was a true joy and always made me smile when she sang k-k-katie to us as she sat with us in the evenings. you and your sibblings are in my thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Mary Lent
October 25, 2009
What an astounding woman and such a beautifully written biography. I would have loved to have known her.
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