In 1997, Kay moved into an over-62 condo community in Santa Cruz. Annoyed by how quiet it was, she organized monthly pot lucks in the downstairs day room. It started out with 2 or 3 residents. By the time she moved to Scotts Valley in 2012, there were close to 2 dozen neighbors noshing dinner once a month. And we hear the pot lucks continue to this day. She also organized a card playing group for her condo complex, and had rotating players for rounds of Hand & Foot and Rummicube.

Kay enjoyed playing bingo, watching Jeopardy (yelling out the answers, of course), doing crosswords, playing Hand & Foot card games, and preparing Easter Brunch. 

And most of all, she loved her kids.

Kay moved to Santa Cruz in 1991, enjoying the ocean and her grandkids, while living with Stuart and his wife. She also found part time employment working for the Santa Cruz County DA’s office, tracking down errant fathers. At age 81, still willing to work, Kay’s hours were extinguished by budgets cuts and she was laid off. But then she found another part time job as a coordinator at the Mid-County Senior Center in Capitola. After about a year or so, she truly retired from the work force, becoming a lady of leisure.

Kay & Patti moved to Seattle, Washington in the fall of 1976 and she found work as an employment counselor. Her entrepreneurial spirit came alive when she opened Kay’s Cookie Kitchen in 1979, located in the “U District” of Seattle. Her success included retail and wholesale operations in two locations, sellling cookies to coffee shops, restaurants and mini marts throughout the city. Kay’s Cookie Kitchen received Four Stars, the highest rating given by “The Gourmet Notebook”, a local culinary magazine. Her treasured cookie recipes are still held by the family today. The most famous cookie in her assortment is the “Mint St. Helens”, named after the volcano that erupted in May of 1980. Kay was at the store the day the volcano blew and could see the plume, 185 miles away. The name and recipe were copyrighted shortly thereafter. Kay closed her stores and ‘retired’ in 1989 at age 65. She continued to bake her wonderful cookies on a smaller scale for lucky family, friends and neighbors.

During those years, Kay also returned to college part time.  Kay’s artistic side emerged. She created pieces on canvas – in oils, watercolors, charcoals; on cloth – in batiks; and other media, including paper and metal. Kay earned a BA in Behavioral Sciences from San Jose State University, completing her degree in 1976.

She met fellow marine, Stuart Howell, and they married in February of 1945. Katherine was honorably discharged in January 1946; she and Stuart settled in San Mateo, California, to start their family.

The Howells, with 4 children, moved to Saratoga in the late 50’s.  Patti, the youngest, was born in 1963. They were members of Sacred Heart church on Saratoga Avenue. 

In 1961, Stu and Kay bought the old Campbell’s grocery store on Saratoga-Los Gatos Rd, renaming it the Saratoga Market. It was a family affair with the older kids working in the store, and Kay behind the scenes doing ‘the books.’ The Market was sold in 1972. Kay, then single, moved to Aptos with daughter Patti.

Her independence led Katherine to leave New York in the forties, before WWII. She enlisted in the Marines, needing written affirmation from her parents;  her brothers had joined the Navy. Her boot camp was on the East Coast, and a troop train took Katherine to Camp Miramar, in California, where she was a ‘Remington Raider’ (a typist), and worked in the post office.

Growing up during the depression, Katherine learned there was always room at the table for someone less fortunate, and family is most precious. Her father was bigger than life to Katherine:  he was a fireman who trained his colleagues on the new combustion engine equipment; he could fix anything, and Katherine was his favorite. Her mother, stoic and industrious, cooked and cleaned for the whole household, including Ada’s infirm mother-in-law. Ada wouldn’t let anyone help around the home. When Katherine would ask to help, her mother shooed her away. When no one was looking, Katherine would dust the furniture or polish the silver.

The McLaughlin clan spent many summers at the shore, in Rockaway Beach. Katherine remembers a time when she was about 4 years old.  It was Sunday, after church, and she wandered away from the family beach cabin for a stroll on the boardwalk. She was gone for hours and hours, exploring and enjoying the day. Sometime later, she saw her mother, stomping down the boardwalk, her younger sister in tow, headed straight for Katherine. Ada pulled up short and hissed, “Put your coat on, Katherine. We don’t want the police to notice you here.  We’ve been looking for you all day!” That may have been the beginning of Katherine’s adventurous spirit, and her fierce independence.

Just as it’s been for all our parents when they were growing up, everything cost a nickel, school was a 5 mile walk in the snow, uphill both ways, wearing hand-me-down threadbare coats, and shoes with newspaper soles. Mom regaled us with stories of her subway rides to school, including the one where she slipped from the platform, narrowly escaping death – or worse. Mom graduated from Our Lady of Wisdom High School in Ozone Park.

Katherine McLaughlin came into this world in New York on a Spring day in 1923, the 5th of 7 children, to Thomas and Ada McLaughlin. 

She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, Winifred and Tom. She is survived by brothers John and Robert, sisters Norine and Ada, numerous nieces, nephews and generations of McLaughlins across the country.  

Mom is also survived by her 5 children Lorraine (husband David), Stuart, Nikki (Michael), Linda and Patti, along with her grandchildren Matthew (Tiffany), Brianna and Cheyne (Justine), and her great-grandchildren Kellen and Joshua.