Kathryn

Donna J Singmaster

Kay and Jimmie blowing out candles on her chocolate 101 year birthday cake.
She loves chocolate.

Avid Reader, especially murder mysteries

Early Childhood
She was born Thanksgiving morning in 1921, not in a hospital, but in an iron bed, in a farmhouse, in rural Bourbon County, Kansas. Though it was not new when they received it, the iron bed in which she was born had been a wedding present to her parents. Her parents, Dove Augustus and Estella Mathilda, named her Kathryn Bernice McGuire. Kathryn was the name of her maternal aunt and Bernice was the name of her mother’s best friend. She was their third child, their third girl. One boy would follow three years later. Growing up in the grasslands of Kansas, she developed a grounded optimism about life. She believes everything - no matter how bad it seems at the time - will turn out for the best.
When she was 3 years old, she begged her father to take her to town with him. He said no, so she decided she would run away from home and live on her own. She took off through the fields. Along the way, she became tired. She lay down in the tall grass. Soon her mother became frantic looking for her. Her sisters joined in. No one could find her. When their father came home, the whole family searched high and low for her, calling her name. It was her pet Airedale, Ladd, who saved her life. He had followed her. He sat up after he heard the family shouting, and someone saw his head poke up above the grass. They found Kathryn, sound asleep, in the grass. Dehydrated, she was sick in bed for several days. But it did not change her optimism about eventual outcomes.
Disaster struck the following year when a fire burned their farmhouse. Kathryn remembers seeing the flames shoot up through the roof. She saw people trying to get things out of the house. Kathryn ran into the flames to save her doll. Terrified and furious, her mother took Kathryn to the schoolhouse. Her sisters watched her until the fire died out.

Few belongings survived: her mother’s piano, the iron bed, a cabinet, and a few chairs. The fire destroyed their furniture and family heirlooms. The losses included a big china cabinet built by her mother’s father. It included china from her mother’s mother. All their mementos and photographs were gone.

The insurance company bilked them. They depreciated the value of their goods to a pittance. The family received paltry compensation for their loss.

Until the new house was rebuilt, they lived in a garage on the farm. Tight quarters for a family of six: beds in one corner, a dinner table her father had built with some boards. The kids would sit on the bed to eat with parents in the two chairs on the other side. They stashed their clothes in boxes under the bed. Dove hung a mattress and bed-springs from the rafters where the girls slept. Kathryn would climb a ladder to get into bed. The garage had a tin roof and when it rained, she still remembers the rain thundering down.

Their new house was small, only four rooms and it took a long time to build. Work on it progressed only with infrequent extra funds.

It was not until Kathryn grew up that she realized how devastating the fire had been to her family finances. The Depression soon followed and the family never recuperated. Her father, a die-hard Republican, would not accept “Roosevelt” aid for farmers.

But Kathryn did not know that they were poor. While she knew that they could not afford some things, it never concerned her. She was never hungry. They grew crops on the farm and canned produce for the winter. They made do with what they had.
She was a happy little girl. She didn’t need toys. She played with her brother, Bud. Piling mud into pie pans, they'd decorate them with sticks, grass and pebbles, and leave them in the sun to dry.
Her sister, Francis, and her cousin, Eugene Cameron, asked Kathryn to join their secret club. Thrilled to play with others who were seven years older, she joined in. They called it the Dirty Three. Of course, being the youngest, she was usually the one charged with committing the pranks. They schemed to pester her oldest sister, Dolores, or Eugene’s older brother, Loren.

Parents
Her parents were affectionate and caring. Her parents always took the time to play games with her and her siblings.
Her mother was the disciplinarian. She expected her kids to do their best. They were to strive for good grades, do their chores well, be considerate of others, and above all, be truthful.
She'd read to them at bedtime.
Her father was always joking and teasing. Everyone loved him and he liked everyone. He never got mad or said unkind things about anyone—much like her son Jimmie turned out.

School and Church
Elementary school was a one-room schoolhouse; one teacher taught all 8 grades. It also served the community as the church and Sunday school. Estella played the piano for the services. Visiting ministers would come to Sunday Evening for Church. Baptist, Holiness, LDS, Methodist preached on a rotating basis. Her family attended them all.
Kathryn enjoyed school. She especially liked math, geography, and history. She didn’t much care for English. She played the trombone…poorly. The only C she got was Glee Club…not for lack of trying but because she couldn't carry a tune.
High School was five miles away. She walked two miles to catch the bus. In winter months, she rented a room in town. Bookkeeping was so enjoyable, she studied Accounting and Business when she attended college.
She was an obedient student but did stray a couple of times. Once, she and three other girls skipped classes to go swimming. Caught, they got into trouble. Later, the entire Junior class skipped school and went to Gunn Park. After scolding the class, the principal later singled her out. He made it clear to her that he was very disappointed because he did not expect that behavior of her. Two good things came from those escapades:
First: the following year, the principal took the entire Senior class to Little Rock for a "Senior Skip Day."
Second: After hearing the story from her mother, Linda never skipped school. She knew if she did, she'd get caught and into trouble.
Her future ambitions varied based on what was going on around her. She wanted to be a nurse or a history teacher. When the circus came to town, she thought she'd like to be a trapeze artist. It looked like so much fun and she’d also be able to travel all over the country.

Sorrow
Etched into her memory are two days of deep sadness. The first was finding her mother crying on Christmas Eve when she about 8 years old. Her mother hugged her and told her that there was no Santa Claus. She explained that mom and dad were the ones who left presents. Still crying, she explained that there would be no presents that year because they had no money. She said they only had enough to treat the youngest child, Bud, with a pair of socks. Kay remembers the socks. They had a little flap pocket sewn on the side. She watched as her father slipped his pocketknife into the pocket of the little socks. She continued watching as her mother wrapped the present, still crying. Her mother also wrapped apples and nuts in tin foil and put them under the tree for the girls. It broke her heart to see her mother cry. She vowed to herself that, if she had children, she would never cry in front of her own children. She kept that promise.

The second saddest day of her life was on Christmas Day 1950. Clarence, Kay, and their three children celebrated Christmas morning at her parent's house. Afterward, they left to visit with Clarence's family. Dove took the wrapping paper outdoors to burn it. The wind whipped up, causing the fire to move into a field. Soon, it was out of control. Dove came back into the house and asked some of the men to come out and help. He said he wasn’t feeling well and needed to lie down. He suffered a heart attack and died. Her father, the man who had given her life, who had given her joy, who had given so much to her, was dead. It hurt to the core of her being.
Her only comfort was that she had spent that morning with him and her family.

Clarence "Sing" Singmaster
She met Clarence Singmaster at a Missouri dance hall in the Spring of 1939. She claimed he had come with a date; he said he was with a group of friends. He kept coming to her table and asking her to dance. By the end of the evening, he had asked her to go to a dance at the Elk Lodge hall the following week. They dated for two years. She would sometimes do her homework in his car while waiting for him to complete his National Guard duty.
The National Guard called him up for training in Arkansas. Clarence sat down with Kathryn to discuss the implications. He told her that he'd be at Fort Robinson for a while and that she could see other boys.
She thought, "Oh boy, he's going to break up me."
Instead, he asked her to marry him.
She said "Yes."
A few months later, she and Clarence’s sister, Irene, drove his car down to Arkansas. Irene’s boyfriend, Virgil, was in the same unit. At lunch, Irene and Virgil announced they were going to get married. They suggested that since Sing and Kay were already engaged, they may as well get married too. Clarence and Kay looked at each other.
Clarence grinned and said, “Why not?”
She replied, “Okay.”
They drove back to the base and found the Commanding Officer to grant them approval. They then had to go to several other places for signatures. By that time, all the places to get married in Little Rock had closed. They learned they could still purchase a license in Benton. They drove to Benton and found a Justice of the Peace. He issued the marriage license and called over a Methodist minister. They married on March 8, 1941. The witnesses were the clerk of the Justice of the Peace and the wives of the minister and the Justice of the Peace.

Their marriage lasted 73 years until Clarence’s death on April 21, 2014. Kathryn’s mother said she never worried about Kathryn because she knew Clarence.
She knew he would “always have food on the table and a roof overhead.”

WWII
After they married, Kathryn returned to Fort Scott to finish her term at college. December of that year, he came home for a 3-day leave. Clarence was a few months from finishing his one year of training and then he would have returned home. While at her parent's home, they heard on the radio that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. They knew that everything had changed forever. With all leaves canceled, soldiers returned to home base immediately. He left the car and returned to the base by train. As they expected, he was re-assigned to the regular army. He started in the 82nd and later moved to the 101st.

After finishing school, she worked at Key Overall Factory in Fort Scott for 7 months as a bookkeeper. The factory stopped making overalls and started sewing uniforms for the army. Once Clarence returned from maneuvers, the army moved him to California. He was stationed to guard the Pacific Coast from a potential invasion. Kathryn followed, driving out with two other girls whose husbands had also moved. The USO helped them find housing to rent. Once Clarence received his commission as a Warrant Officer, they were stationed first in Alabama and then in North Carolina.

Children
Their first child, Linda Kay was born in 1942 in Escondido, CA. Their son, Jimmie Lee, named after Clarence’s best friend, was born in North Carolina in 1944.

Kathryn moved back to Ft Scott, KS, lived in a little bungalow they had bought, while Clarence was overseas during the war.
After the war, they moved to a small farm. Mary Dee was born in 1947.
They learned about the booming post-war economy in the Pacific Northwest from Clarence's cousin, Isabel. She and her husband, Virgil Shull, had moved there a few years earlier. They encouraged Sing and Kay to join them. Optimistic about their future, they moved to Vancouver, WA. Donna Jean was born in 1951.
Four kids, four states: California, North Carolina, Kansas, and Washington.

Work and Hobbies
Kathryn volunteered for Boys Scouts, PTA, Girl Scouts, church, and Rainbow Girls.
When Donna was no longer a toddler, Kay started working part-time at Manpower. She then worked full-time for the Oregon Fish Commission and the Portland Water Bureau. She retired in 1981.

Kathryn enjoyed sewing. She learned from her father, who used a treadle machine to stitch up harnesses. She also learned from her mother. Her mother made dresses for the girls from flour sacks, carefully selecting sacks with matching labels.
Kathryn took sewing classes in school. Twice, when she bought a new sewing machine, she took classes to further hone her skills. Clarence also knew how to sew. Together, they would sometimes re-upholster their own furniture.

She sewed costumes for the kid's school programs. She sewed Easter dresses and suits for her girls. She sewed Linda's wedding dress.
While Donna was in high school, she'd design her own clothes and Kathryn would sew them for her. And she taught Donna to sew. Kay was a stickler for precision. She’d insist Donna rip apart a mismatched seam and re-sew it until the plaids matched.

She also enjoyed genealogy. It was an interest she shared with her bed-ridden oldest sister, Deloris. This was long before the internet. They wrote relatives and county recorders, they exchanged letters sharing their finds. Kay spent time at libraries. She wrote to other relatives. She visited them when she and Clarence traveled the country. She pieced together the ancestry of both Clarence and herself. Donna transferred much of her work into her family tree at Ancestry.com. Much more remain in boxes and files that still need cataloging. In September 2020, she was admitted into the Daughters of the American Revolution when her 5th great grandfather, Hugh Glenn, was proved to have supported the American Revolution. She and Donna are certain that several other relatives fought for the Revolution. They are working to conclusively prove their relationship to more Patriots. A link to Kay's family tree above - just under her name.

Financial Security
Once all the kids moved out and were on their own, she and Clarence lived on her salary. They invested all Clarence's income. Clarence's workplace did not have a pension plan. They wanted to build enough wealth to ensure they would never be a burden to their kids.
Neither of them knew anything about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Together, they learned by reading and attending night classes. They invested as a team, talking through their ideas, and agreeing about what to buy and what to sell. Kathryn was astute, analytical, and cautious, but willing to take risks. Their success allowed them to live a comfortable life, along with the freedom to travel.

Travel
Travel adventures were an important part of her life with Clarence. They’d drive back to Kansas at least every three years to visit their relatives. When they had their kids with them, they drove a different route each time. They would stop, visit the sites, and enjoy the beauty of the West. They stopped by friends and relatives along the way.
After retirement, Clarence and Kathryn drove throughout the United States and Canada. They visited every USA state capitol building and every Canadian legislative building.
They toured Mexico, China, Russia, traveled throughout Europe, Ireland, and Great Britain.
For twenty years, they spent their winters in San Diego. They stopped after Clarence lost his eyesight due to macular degeneration.
In 2007, Kay traveled to the British Isles with her daughters. They located Kathryn’s ancestral houses in Grantham, England. They visited Scotland. They toured the McGuire territory in Northern Ireland.
The greens of Ireland amaze her. The fuschia hedges enchant her. Ireland pulls at her heart.

Move to Retirement Community
Clarence and Kay moved to Hearthstone at Murrayhill in 2007. Maintaining the house was more work than they wanted.
Kay volunteered to manage the Hearthstone library until her stroke in 2014.
She loves that she no longer must cook and clean; she never much cared for cooking. But, her children agree she made, without question, the best lemon meringue pie, and the best pumpkin chiffon pie on the planet. Her turkey stuffing was unbeatable. Her French toast was memorable.
Her hearing has failed her but in May 2017, she had a cochlear implant. To hear birdsong and the patter of rain again was a joy.
Until Covid, she enjoyed what Hearthstone had to offer. She played pinochle, exercised daily, walked indoors and out, took tai chi classes, and played spider solitaire.
She played WII golf and bowling with other residents. She loved to solve jigsaw puzzles; she is a jigsaw whiz.
She read 77 books in 2018, 57 in 2019, 73 in 2020, and 53 so far in 2021 before her birthday. She favors murder mysteries. With her weaker eyesight, she reads large print books.

COVID 19
Until the coronavirus, she hosted a regular Thursday night Dinner & Cards with family.
Since March 2020, she follows the Covid safety measures taken by Hearthstone. She has adapted and remains as cheerful as ever.
She walks the hallways for exercise wearing a mask. Her exercises classes are broadcast on their internal TV channel. During the lockdown, she worked on jigsaw puzzles and read in her room. For some time, she could only visit with family outside if they remained at least six feet away and wore a mask. In August 2020, they started serving residents meals in the dining hall again. She could then play WII golf with other residents.
In 2021, Hearthstone began to allow family in residents' rooms, but not in the communal dining rooms. The family "Dinner and Cards" started back up. Because only residents were allowed in the dining room, they reserved the private dining room and afterward headed to her room for cards. She is talented and still wins her fair share of games.
In May 2022, she received her 2nd Covid booster.

100 YEARS!
Kathryn celebrated her 100th birthday in November 2021. COVID complicated the celebration. She had one celebration at Scott and Teri Miller's house on the 6th of November where all the grandkids and great-grandkids gathered. On her actual birthday, all her children and spouses shared dinner at Linda and Ray's house. The grandkids showed up afterward for dessert. Two celebrations meant more cake and ice cream. Hearthstone dedicated the area where Kay solves jigsaw puzzle with a plaque reading "Kay's Corner."

2022
Covid still rules, but Kay is doing fine. While Donna visited in April, she and Linda helped repair Kay's laptop. They also determined that her iPad 2 was too old to access the Kaiser Permanante website. She got a new one and learned to use it in a few days. She's learned to use Kindle on her ipad, but prefers large print books. Murder mysteries, mostly. Still a jigsaw maven.

With the birth of Jett Crew Johnson, son of Megan (Runyan) and her husband Nolan, on October 25th, she became a great, great grandmother. Jett->Megan Runyan Johnson->Leslie Singmaster Runyan->Jimmie Singmaster->Kathryn McGuire Singmaster.

On Thanksgiving Day 2022, she celebrated her 101st Birthday and saw her great, great grandson for the first time.

2023
She contracted Covid on the 3rd of April in 2023. Though her symptoms were mild, Covid knocked the stuffing out of her. She was always tired and felt confused, but was improving slowly...until May 29. She fell and broke her wrist. That knocked back her recovery time. For one week, she took meals in her room and staff took care of putting in her eyedrops. She's now getting to the dining room herself, tending to herself, and slowly recuperating from Covid.

Family and Love
Family is the most important part of her life. She believes strong family ties teach us the value of love. She knows that affection and care create self-confidence. A strong family provides the tools to succeed in life.
She marvels at seeing how each of her four children are so different, and yet, so alike. She is grateful that they have each been successful in their own way.
She still believes that even when things seem bad, they will turn out for the best.
She is not afraid to die. She says she doesn’t want to live forever and that after she’s gone, she wants us to get over it and get on with our lives.
She is always optimistic about the future and wants you to be optimistic too.

In California ~ Pregnant with Linda

Learning to use new upgraded iPad - April 2022.

In the Pink ~ May 2020
First Haircut after 5 1/2 months ~ Aug 2020

Northern Ireland 2007

Linda, Donna, Kathryn & Mary

They traveled through England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, visiting Kathryn's ancestral homes.

Tim opening Champagne for Kay's 100th Birthday

Kay and Sing ~ August 2000

Be Adventurous ~ Have Fun

1991- 50th Wedding Anniversary with

Mary, Jimmie, Donna, Linda

18 Years Old - 1939

Kathryn McGuire Singmaster Family Tree

Linda, Jimmie and Kay

July 2018

1986

100th Year Birthday.
Front Row: Mary Linder, Donna (wearing Kay's suit from the 1980s), Kay, Jimmie, Linda Miller. Second Row: Wyatt Miller (Great Grandchild), Teri Miller, Leslie Runyan, Scruffy (Donna & Tim's dog), Jaye Anne Miller, Jan Daniel (Jimmie), Tim Errington, (Donna). Back Row: Tom Linder (Mary), Scott Miller, Erik Runyan, Eric Carlson (Jaye), Ray Miller (Linda)>

Iron bed she was born in. She made the quilt at the foot of the bed. Sing's grandmother Anderson made the quilt on the bed. Sing bought the matelasse coverlet in France during WWII.

5 Generations ~ 101 years apart! Clockwise from bottom left: Kathryn (born 24 Nov 1921), her second child Jimmie Lee (1944), his daughter Leslie Singmaster Runyan (1966), her daughter Megan Runyan Johnson (1994), and Jett Crew Johnson (born 25 Oct 2022).

Marriage Photo ~ 1941

Jimmie teaching his mother to take a selfie.

Kathryn "Kay" Bernice Singmaster

24 November 1921 ~ Alive, Vaccinated + Fully Boostered Covid Survivor