Katherine Hibbs

Katherine Hibbs died March 24th at Nursing Home East of the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center.She was born August 25th, 1914 in Donalsonville, Georgia to James Morris and Sarah Katherine Stovall. She was two years old when her father James Morris died, and the family moved to Panama City to live with aunts while their Mother went to Washington D.C. to work for the War Department. When peace was declared, she was offered a permanent position, but returned to Florida and her two daughters.Katherine attended Georgia State Women’s College in Valdosta, Georgia for two years and Florida State Women’s College for one year, finishing college at 18. Her older sister, Blanche got Kay a job doing secretarial work at the Hartfort Fire Insurance Company and, after five years, an AAUW scholarship, and work study jobs, she was accepted at Peabody College in Nashville, TN to study library science. She met her husband Joe at Peabody and, during the Second World War, worked for the Baltimore Public Library and the Library of Congress. She was one of the first women pilots in an Army Air Force program, joined the Civil Air Patrol but was never able to fly for them when she got married.Joe and Kay were married at The Little Church Around the Corner in New York City and, as soon as she finished her contract, she moved to where Joe was stationed. After the war, the couple settled in Kentucky on Joe’s family farm where Kay worked as a school librarian until she retired at 70 years old. Her husband Joe died at 53 and her oldest son Joseph Miles Hibbs III (Skip) died in 1994, but Kay held on to the family farm until she gave it to the sons Tom and Minor and their families. Her life was full of helping others during her long and productive career in education. She is known in Nelson County for letting groups and friends barbecue and swim at “the lake.” She moved to La Junta to live with Tom and Sallie when she broke her hip in the fall of 2001. She had been in the Arkansas Valley Nursing Center since April 2007.Katherine is survived by her sons Thomas Stovall Hibbs (Sallie) of La Junta and Minor Brooks Hibbs (Wanda) from Austin, Texas. Her grandchildren are Sarah Katherine Shipp (Tom) of Colorado Springs, Jason Hibbs (Kim) of La Junta, and Ashley and Beta Hibbs from Austin, Texas. Bethany Faith Hibbs of La Junta and Abigail Hannah Shipp from Colorado Springs are her great grandchildren. Her older sister Blanche Erdman lives with her daughters Katherine Horngren (Keith) in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Martha Thompson (Jerry) from Littleton, Colorado. She has one neice Cynthia Keck (Eric) of Idaho and one nephew Parker Thompson of Littleton and one great niece, Laura Keck of Idaho. She leaves three stepchildren – Deborah Bryning of Charlottesville, Virginia, Malcolm Bryning of Las Animas, and Rebecah Bryning Castillo (Bob) of San Diego, California. Her six step grand children are Shane (Rhonda) Adam (Jamie), and Justin Noblin of Virginia, Warren and Mike Bryning of Las Animas, and Chelsia Enteman (Brock) of Colorado Springs. She also has 7 step great grand children—Sterling and Alexis, Ethan and Jade, and Austin, Savannah and Alexandra, all of Virginia.A memorial service will be held at the Bardstown Baptist Church in Bardstown, Kentucky in May when she will be buried next to her husband Joseph Miles Hibbs, Jr.Peacock-Larsen funeral Home & Arkansas Valley Crematory is in charge of arrangement.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Nelson County Education Endowment Fund, Inc.
288 Wildcat Lane, Bardstown, KY 40004