Kathryn June Hileman Harris
Kathryn June Hileman Harris, 87, of Vinalhaven, Maine, died on April 18, 2016, at the Ivan Calderwood Assisted Living Eldercare Homestead on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine.
At various times called Kate and Kathy but most recently “Katie,” she was born in Anna, on Jan. 22, 1929, the daughter of Mabel Beatrice Sandlin and Louie “Red the Taxi Cab Man” Cecil Hileman.
A 1946 graduate of Carmi Township High School in Carmi, and a student at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Hannibal, Mo., Katie worked at various times as a personnel and payroll clerk.
She moved often when she was younger, living in Washington, D.C., Long Beach, Calif., Ledyard, Conn., and Copan, Okla., among other places.
An accomplished seamstress, she loved to make clothes for her husband Carl. Also she loved doing crosswords, and was a very talented cross stitch embroiderer, creating masterpieces that looked like paintings.
Katie loved to talk and reminisce, and was a very cheerful and pleasant person who made friends where she went. She loved cats and birds, cardinals and hummingbirds in particular, and loved watching the wildlife, including deer, peacocks, and turkeys, out the windows of her home in Copan.
She was an avid cook and was expert at frying the catfish her husband, Carl, caught; and she loved to eat lobster. She had a passion for Ford Mustangs, and “Mustang Katie!” owned several throughout her life, her most recent a 1997, which she drove until she could no longer drive.
She was preceded in death by her mother in 1933 and her father in 1939, Katie and her older sister, Betty Louise Hileman Wagner, who preceded her in death in 2010 in Enfield, grew up at the Carmi Baptist Children’s Home in Carmi.
Formerly widowed when her husband of 14 years, Clarence William Eaves died in 1970 in Ledyard, Conn., she was widowed again when her husband of 38 years, Carl Loyd Harris, died in September 2015 in Copan, their home since 1991, near Carl’s birthplace.
She was also preceded in death by a stepdaughter, Patricia (Harris) King, of Niantic, Conn. in 2006.
After Carl’s passing, she moved to Maine to be near her stepdaughter, Carla Harris, who she lovingly called her husband’s “namesake” and a “Maine-iac!”
She is survived by a nephew, George Budd and his wife Linda of Enfield, their daughter Tawnie and her husband Chris Connors of Davis Junction, and their children Makenna, Trevor, Brady and Delaney; a brother-in-law, Floyd Jack of Dewey, Okla., and a brother-in-law, John B. Wells of Bacliff, Texas; a sister-in-law, Ida (Gurliacci) Taliercio of Norwalk, Conn.; a stepdaughter, Carla Harris and her partner Peter Gasperini of Vinalhaven, Maine; a stepdaughter, Toni Tansey and her husband Steve of Groton, Conn.; a stepson-in-law, Phillip King of Niantic, Conn.; six step-grandchildren and several step-great-grandchildren.
Her family said she will be missed at the Ivan Calderwood Homestead, where she quickly made friends, and where she received extraordinarily great care by the staff and medical community. The family voiced appreciation to the Rockland, Maine, Kno-Wal-Lin Hospice staff and volunteers who were an invaluable part of Katie’s life.
Her ashes will be buried with her parents in Anna. Graveside inurnment will be at 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, at the Anna City Cemetery.
To view the full obituary or to leave an online condolence for the family, visit www.crainsonline.com.
Crain Funeral Home in Anna-Jonesboro is in charge of arrangements.