Katherine Stephens (Tulia)

Tulia, Texas— Katherine Stephens, 96, died Thursday, November 28, 2013 in Pampa. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 pm Monday, December 2, 2013 in the First United Methodist Church in Tulia with Rev. C.W. Parker of Pampa and Rev. Donna Nelson and Mr. Roy DOndaldson officiating. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulia. Arrangements are under the care of Kornerstone Funeral Directors of Tulia. Katherine was born June 12, 1917 in the family home 12 miles south of Claude, TX to William and Anna Gaskamp Kitzler. She attended school in the Lakeview Community south of Claude and then Rude’s Business College in Carthage, Missouri. She married April 3, 1939 in Tucumcari, NM to Marvin Stephens who was a cowboy at the time. They had two children: Virginia in 1940 and Gene in 1941. They worked on various farms and ranches in New Mexico, Colorado and Texas before settling in Tulia in 1970. Marvin still did local ranch work and Katherine became an art teacher, a work she continued after Marvin’s death in 1986. She was also interested in genealogy and traced her family back into the 1700’s in Germany. She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and both children: Gene in 2003 and Virginia Maples in 2008. She is survived by her son-in-law: Dyrle Maples and his wife Dorothy of Canyon, two nieces: Martha Burk of Pampa and Ina Aduddell of Amarillo, ten grandchildren and many great and great, great grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the First United Methodist Church, Tulia, Texas.