Katherine Cary

Katherine Irene Cary, 89, of Indiana Pa., passed away Thursday November 11, 2021.  The daughter of the late Walter and Vera Hankinson, was born July 28, 1932 in Chambersville, Pa., a coal mining town, during the Great Depression. 
 
Kate had a zest for life and an unwavering love of her family.  She was an extremely loving and supportive mother and grandmother, and honored her parents all her life.   She enjoyed traveling, often saying “If I could, I would get on a plane and see everything in the world.”  While spending much of her life in the Indiana, Pennsylvania area, opportunity took her to Detroit, Michigan, the Washington D.C area, Frederick, Maryland, and Tucson and Scottsdale, Arizona.   While Indiana was home, she had a fondness for Arizona, especially Tucson, as she loved the weather that allowed her to be outside year round.  At her home in Tucson, exercising or relaxing by the pool were favorite activities for her. Kate was adventurous and in Tucson, in her late 40’s, she began running and would run 50 or more miles per week.  She ended up running several marathons.  She loved the challenge and it was a great outlet for her energy and love of being outdoors.   
 
Katherine had so many admirable traits, she valued hard work and was a fastidious homemaker, was honest, possessed wisdom, was courageous, intuitive, tough minded, had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh.  She was a beautiful and elegant woman, who was always stylish.   Kate had a fondness for music of most kinds, probably instilled by her older brothers, professional musicians who performed at the Grand Ole Opry and her dad who was a talented musician.  Often, she would relate song lyrics to many of life’s circumstances.   
 
Kate made friends everywhere she went, as she would engage in conversation with anyone she met.  Kate cared about people, would truly listen to what they said, she was considerate and would help when she could.  Always generous, she was the type of person who may give someone her last dollar if she thought they needed it.  This may have been driven by her strong faith in God.  When talking about something in the future most have heard her say, “God willing.”  Katherine had an unwavering belief in doing the right thing, always.  Those close to her knew well her stare, it could burn through you if she thought you were doing something wrong.  She was loved by just about everyone she knew.  Many of her nieces and nephews have said she was their favorite aunt, as she was fun to be with and always supportive of her family.   Family was everything to her, being with family her greatest joy.  She was a good storyteller, and loved talking about her life with her big family, growing up in Chambersville.   When in Indiana she loved to walk or jog all around town, and often would walk around the lake at Blue Spruce Park, she felt connected and peaceful there.
 
When Katherine’s mother was no longer able to take care of herself, Kate moved back to Chambersville to provide most of her care, 24/7 for years.   She had made a promise to her father that she would make sure her mom was taken care of if he was gone, and she was determined to live up to that.   She was like that you could count on her. 
 
Surviving Katherine are her children, Gary Cary (wife Janice), and Kimberly Holeva (husband James), her 4 grandchildren, Jesse Van Camp (wife Angela), Hillary Wachob (husband Lyle), Elizabeth Gonzales (husband Eddie) and Jacob Cary; and 14 great grandchildren; Addason, Dakota, Emma, Ethan, Hadley, Jackson, Keely, Lyric, MacKenzie, Maverick, Rachel, Rylee, Sophia, and Wyatt.
 
 
Katherine was preceded in death by her parents and her 9 siblings, Elizabeth, Walter, Stan, Melvin, Gene, Carl, Dolores Cary, Dale and Mona Little and great grandson Declan.
 
In keeping with her wishes there will be no funeral.   Her family is planning a Celebration of Her Life next year, possibly close to her birthday and will do so at Blue Spruce Park, a favorite spot for her.
 
 

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