| Graduation Year | Class of 1945 |
| Date of Passing | Nov 28, 2010 |
| About | Kathryn Louise Lovell was born December 7, 1927 in Racine, Ohio. She spent her youth in Zanesville, where she met her Lash High School sweetheart, William Bartley. Kay worked in Dayton for the Air Force while Bill served in the Navy during WWII. They married August 31, 1946. After briefly attending Ohio University, they headed to California with their two children, Linda and Jay, in a maroon Plymouth that Bill won in a raffle. Bill worked in the main office of Santa Fe Drilling Company and was soon tapped for his first overseas assignment, to the outskirts of Maracaibo, Venezuela. One of Kay's jobs for the next three years was to home-school Linda and Jay with the assistance of the Calvert School based in Baltimore. After four years in Venezuela, the family moved to Peru for five months and then to Bogota, Colombia for another four years. They were transferred to Whittier, California in time for Linda to start high school. Another transfer meant that Jay graduated from high school in New Canaan, Connecticut, while Bill worked in New York. Jay played football his four years at Brown University and a particular pleasure for Kay and Bill was to attend as many games as possible. The next overseas assignment was to Singapore, a splendid place to live. Kay took advantage of her home base and visited "before" China, as well as Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries in the region. While in that part of the world, she acquired a taste for oriental decorative art and artifacts. As is true for many oil field people, Kay and Bill ended up in Houston, Texas, where Bill continued his work with Reading & Bates. In Houston, Kay was a partner in an antique shop for nine years, in addition to perfecting her golf and bridge games. In November 1997, Jay died from complications related to diabetes; shockingly, Bill died two months later from congestive heart failure. Linda, who lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband, Ken Button, and children Kathryn (Kara) and Daniel, eventually enticed Kay to move north. For the past five years, Kay lived in a senior community in Bethesda, MD, a few miles from the Button residence. While visiting Zanesville in August for gatherings of Lovell and Bartley family members, Kay had to be hospitalized at Good Samaritan to treat symptoms related to aortic stenosis, the disease that led to her death two days after Thanksgiving, ten days before her 83rd birthday. Kay received excellent hospice assistance, augmented by around-the-clock care provided by Linda and Kara. On Thanksgiving day, Kay's sister Phyllis LaPlante and nieces Carol Barnett and Barbara Hamilton flew from their homes in Florida to help talk, hug, pray and sing Kay into her next life. Kay was preceded in death by these former Zanesville residents: her parents, Flossie and Carlos Lovell; her parents-in-law, Charles and Grace Bartley; her sister and brother-in-law, Lucille and Everett Jackson, Sr.; her sisters-in-law, Ruth Lovell and Cynthia Bartley; and brothers-in-law, William Connar and Walter LaPlante. Among immediate relatives of her generation still residing in Zanesville are her brother, Richard Lovell; and brother-in-law, Roger Bartley. On December 5, Linda and Ken hosted a reception at their home to give thanks for Kay's life. At the gathering and in letters, these are repeated words and phrases describing Kay: gentle, sweet, always smiling, elegant, lovely, clever, dignified, never complaining, true friend. Hers was a good life well lived. A service will be held in the spring to bury Kay's ashes in the Mt. Hermon Cemetery near Bartlett, Ohio. |
