Kathleen McCarty Cash

On Tuesday, November 3, 2020, the world became a lesser place because a great lady left this earth. Kathleen McCarty Cash went home reentering the presence of her Lord and Savior and her heavenly parents. Kathy is reunited with her family, friends, and loved ones that had preceded her through the veil. A year ago, Kathy fell and broke a leg. The break was in a spot that required it to heal naturally, and after months in bed she was finally released to start rehabilitation. Shortly after her release the state went into a lock down and physical therapy was canceled. In truth, Kathy never recovered from her broken leg because she never regained the mobility she had before she fell. Before going to the hospital this last time, she had reported a weakness in her good leg, the one she had not broken, and she was unable to stand. While at the hospital she had asked for and received a Priesthood blessing from her home teachers. Afterwards she told me that when the blessing began, she had had a wave of warmth come over her body. She said it was like nothing she had ever felt before and that warmth grew with in her while the blessing was occurring. At the end she said that she had felt a hand on her shoulder and a voice quietly told her that she need not fear.

The other day Kelly, Kathy’s daughter-in-law, said that her girls wanted to remember their Nana in a chair, arms extended, waiting for a hug, to show them love and affection. That’s a great way to remember her, but I remember her differently. I remember my mom wading calf deep into an ice-cold stream hunting for weeds and twigs, while in one of her ‘crafty phases.’ Those weeds and twigs would be turned into wreaths, or centerpieces, or displays that were placed in decoupage vases she made. A while back I ran across one of those vases when I visited the home of an old friend’s parents. I also remember the time when I caught her red-handed while she was helping to toilet papering a house. She ran and hid behind a shrub with all of her girls from church in tow. I also remember how Kathy loved order. She would fold her dirty clothes and pile them neatly in color appropriate piles before she did her laundry, or how she would stack trash in containers, one inside the other, all in neat and orderly stacks. I remember how Kathy loved to shop. After she retired, we would go to Costco or Target to shop and Mom would give me my orders before she tore off. When I had accomplished my tasks, it would take me a quarter of an hour to track her down, and then longer than that to coax her out of the store. She had gone in for one thing, and she had found a dozen others she needed.

Kathleen was full of life and mirth - she genuinely loved people. Kathy had the ability to make friends and was thrilled to meet new people. She was warm and charming, and those qualities made her brilliant. She was genuine, she was full of love, and had an inquiring quality that drew people into her orbit. Her charisma was truly a gift, and she used it make friends, meet new people, and help alleviate the sufferings of others. Kathy fulfilled her self-described purpose early in life with her marriage to Richard and the birth of her first child, Jeffery Layne. Being a wife, a mother, and a home maker was what Kathy had aspired to and it was something that she did well. After Richard’s schooling was finished the family relocated to Las Vegas, NV for employment reasons.

While in Las Vegas Jeff was joined by two brothers Ronald Lynn and Douglas Ray. At this phase in her life Kathy was raising three raucous boys. Over the next few years, she became a den mother, pack leader, home room mother, and she led a webelos troop all while attending a never-ending series of little league games, basketball games, and soccer games. Feeding and clothing three boys was hard, but the boys always had new tough-skins when the knees wore out and her home was full of love, it was clean and safe, and there was always enough to eat. Kathy was also active in the PTA and took a keen interest in her boy’s education. When Ron was having reading problems, she took it upon herself to learn the latest methods for teaching reading to ensure her child got an education.

For employment reasons, the family relocated to Albuquerque NM, where she lived until the time of her passing. While in Albuquerque Kathy was active in the LDS Church and served in a number of callings, including the president of the young women’s group and she was part of a relief society presidency. Kathy loved to serve and gave willing of her time and talents to aid in building up the Kingdom of God. Her home became a staging area for her lessons, class activates and outings, and the mischief she relished being part of. To assist in keeping her boys on the straight and narrow, Kathy and Richard spent many weekends camping in the mountains of New Mexico. For Kathy it reminded her of how she grew up, with her father, trekking (that’s getting lost), camping, and fishing in the mountains of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. At first the family camped properly, in a tent, but after a wet miserable trip when the tent leaked, the river flooded, and a cooler full of food was washed down the Rio de Las Vacas, the Cash’s fled the tent and moved to a pop-up camper.

Kathy was the youngest of four children. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Royal “Roy” William and Wanda Barnes McCarty. Just before her death Kathy celebrated her 80th birthday. She was preceded in her return to her Heavenly Father by her parents Roy and Wanda, her brother Raymond McCarty, and her sisters Evelyn Venus Cawvey and Gail Geneva Clegg. Kathy grew up in Salt Lake City surrounded by family and friends in a loving home. She distinctly remembered her father dressing up every Saturday to go downtown to buy a token of love for Wanda, her mother. Often those tokens were the latest kitchen gadget and when she moved her mother to Albuquerque before her passing she found hundreds of those little love tokens in the back of the kitchen drawers, they had never been opened or even used, they were there, dated and signed Love, R.

While growing up Kathy was an avid skier and frequently joined her friends breaking curfew to ski. On Saturdays, she would join her friends on the bus before dawn to spend the day on the mountain. After a day on the slopes Kathy and her friends purposefully miss the last bus heading down into the valley. This allowed the girls to stay on the slopes skiing into the night while carrying torches for light. Once exhausted, the skiers would rent chairs inside the lodge and sleep. They were with dozens of other skiers all eager to return to the slopes at first light, even though the slopes were closed. The key to making it work, according to Kathy was to time it just right to get a chair close to the fire so you could get a good night’s sleep since they were accidently stranded you could not have taken up a blanket.

According to legend, Kathy started driving at 11. She learned to drive on the dry farms where her parents were raised in Utah and Weber Counties. At 16, when it came time to for Kathy to take her driving test, she found herself in need of a car, so Ray allowed his little sister to barrow his car. Kathy went to the test in a massive fined black 1954 Cadillac convertible. She drove the course, parked the car, and passed with flying colors. On the way back from the driving test a car pulled out in front of her, Kathy slammed on the breaks, the caddy slid to a stop, she avoided an accident. Once stopped - there was as a rush of bottles from under the caddie’s front seat cracking her instructor on the back of his ankles.

After graduating from East High School in Salt Lake City, Kathy met Tom Cash at a dance. The pair dated briefly, but Kathy was smitten when she met Tom’s younger brother, Richard. Richard and Kathleen were married and after 30 years they divorced. This split propelled Kathleen into a new phase of her life. Kathy went back to school to learn a craft and with a degree in hand she went to work at Sandia National Laboratories, where she worked for twenty-years, as a secretary. She loved her work and received numerous awards she had found a career she was good at. She loved to work, the interaction with people and the youth and vitality of her staff. She bragged that she had the two greatest bosses ever, a brilliant staff, and the greatest group of co-workers that anyone could ever hope for.

Kathy is survived by Jeffery Layne and Kelly McNutt Cash of Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as Ronald Lynn Cash and Douglas Ray Cash of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is also survived by her granddaughter Alyssa Cash Heminger and husband Jesse Ethan Heminger of Herndon, Virginia, and her granddaughter Clairise Alayna Cash of Richmond Virginia.

Due to virus lockdown in the State of New Mexico the service for Kathleen has been postponed. Once the restrictions are lifted, we hope to hold a memorial service in the spring.