Kathleen “Kathie” Weltha Walker, mother of four, died after a series of strokes on Sunday, July 1, 2018.
Kathie was born in Fortuna to Jesse and Patricia Kemp. She graduated from Fortuna High School in 1969.
In the early seventies, Kathie and her high school sweetheart, Larry Walker, married and began a long adventure with Christ. They joined the Gospel Outreach and the Lighthouse Ranch and followed God and their hearts up and down California. They spent a number of years in Palmdale, California attending the Vineyard Fellowship. From Southern California, the family moved to Lassen County in Northern California. From Lassen County, the family finally returned to Humboldt County in the mid-eighties. She was blessed to be able to spend time with her daughter and her family in Minnesota for a number of years and then more recently with her son and his family in Florida.
She moved back to Humboldt in the spring of 2017. In her time back in Humboldt, she became the organist for the Catholic churches in Scotia and Ferndale and joined in the arts community around Rio Dell. On Easter Sunday she formally joined the Catholic church. In early June 2018 she had the first of a series of strokes that lead to her death.
Kathie is remembered as a beloved mother and grandmother as well as an artist and a musician. She was a woman who could do whatever she set her mind to be it, remodeling, reupholstering, picking up a new instrument, moving her baby grand from home to home – there was never a challenge that couldn’t be met with some creativity and some prayer. She was kind and willing to help out whomever needed help.
Kathie is survived by her brother Arnold Kemp, his wife Kathleen Kemp, three daughters and one son, Sarah Morgan, Rachel Walker-Heine, Jessica Windbigler and Jonathan Walker as well as ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her childhood sweetheart Larry Walker passed last year and we have missed her parents for many years.
Services will be July 19 at 11 a.m. at the Assumption Catholic Church, 546 Berding St. in Ferndale.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Kathie’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.