Kathrynell Kate Propp McDonald

February 19, 1933

Kathrynell (Kate) Propp McDonald passed away quietly from this life into eternity on Thursday, February 1, 2024.

Kate was born on February 19, 1933, on a farm in Marion County, Kansas, near Lost Springs, to Ezra and Elizabeth (Rudolph) Propp. Kate and her family moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1944.

On March 17, 1955

Kate married 2nd Lt.

Jack L. McDonald, an Air Force pilot, and began her career as an Air Force wife, moving her children and household every two years all over the world. She always said “what a happy life that was” and would not have traded it for any other. She saw and went places that she could have only dreamed about. Always active in the Officers’ Wives Club, she supported many charities. After returning from Taiwan in the fall of 1973 to Randolph AFB in Texas, she and Jack “settled” into the Universal City/Randolph AFB community.

Kate attended Mount

St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas and for many years worked in the chemistry and pathology laboratories at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita and labs across the country, wherever Jack’s Air Force career took them. She received a degree in Business Administration from Texas Lutheran University in 1985. She worked many years in civil service at Randolph AFB before retiring in 2000.

In her retirement years, Kate became caretaker for her elderly mother until her mother’s death in 2007. She loved volunteering at the base library, and was very active in the Catholic Church parish life at Randolph AFB. She became a Eucharistic

- February 1, 2024

minister of communion in 1985 and served in that capacity for 30 years. In 2016, she moved to the Menger Springs retirement community in Boerne, Texas. She commented “what a beautiful place to spend your twilight years.”

Kate was preceded in death by her husband Jack of 56 years and her parents.

Kate is survived by her sons, Michael (Star) McDonald of Boerne, Texas, Thomas (Sue) McDonald of College Station, Texas, and John (Kathy) McDonald of Dallas, Texas; her three grandchildren, Sean, Patrick, and Kimberly McDonald; her three great-grandchildren; and her brother, Gene (Patty) Propp of Prairie Village, Kansas.

Kate will be interred at Fort Sam National Cemetery in San Antonio at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to your favorite charity.

Arrangements are under the care and direction of the staff of Holt & Holt Funeral Home of Boerne. To share words of comfort with the family, please visit www.holtfh.com.