KATHRYN “KAY” SCHWARTZ FELDT
1922-2018
Kay was born to Zemore Benjamin (ZB) and Louise Ablon on December 18, 1922 in Tupelo, Mississippi. She was the second youngest of seven children and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. She moved to Houston in her teenage years and remained a longtime Houston resident. Kay passed away November 15, one month before her 96th birthday. She is survived by her daughters, Lori Holman and Andrea McDiarmid; grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Alex McDiarmid, David McDiarmid, Zachary McDiarmid, Jessica Holman Berg (husband Michael and sons, Joshua and Zachary), Eric Holman (wife Tarryn and daughters, Michaela and Chloe), Erica Reischer Craft (husband Ricardo and children, Avery and Caden); brother, Ralph Ablon and innumerable nieces and nephews, including Alene Levy , Dr. Kay Kaufman-Shelemay, Karolyn Kaufman Merz, Patricia Ablon, Dr. Stephen Ablon, Richard Ablon, Jennifer Ablon, Barbara Ablon, Suzie Lubin, David Schwartz, Joanie Bernstein Goldman, Dr. Richard Bernstein, and longtime friend and caregiver Gloria Moore. Kay is predeceased by her parents, her daughter, Connie Reischer, her grandson, Matthew McDiarmid, and five siblings. At the same time that she loved, cherished and educated her three daughters, Kay stepped forward as a woman ahead of her time by establishing her court reporting firm, Allied Reporting, in the late 1950’s. She built the business from the ground up and went on to work tirelessly for many years, determined to create a business of singular excellence. She met her resolve, eventually earning the respect and admiration of the greater measure of the entire legal community of Houston. Her keen intelligence and evergrowing grasp of legal procedure even led many a young lawyer to look to her for guidance as they embarked upon their careers. She ran Allied Reporting for over 40 years. She was an early and generous supporter of SEARCH services for the homeless and was on the board of directors for many years. Most notably, she single-handedly endowed the Connie Schwartz Reischer House of Tiny Treasures, a preschool for children of the homeless. Kay also made a naming rights donation to the Houston Area Women’s Center in memory of her beloved mother, Louise Strauss Ablon. In her professional life, Kay was a veritable role model for independence, a sense of self-worth and indomitable determination for generations of women to come. In her personal life, she stood with absolute moral conviction and a bulwark of insistence upon justice and equality for all. In addition to being a businesswoman and a philanthropist, Kay had a magnificent singing voice. Family lore has it that she was approached about professional signing and was told she had the second-best operatic voice in the country. In her mid-life she was able to travel the world and took her grandchildren on many adventures. She had many special, life-long friends, most notably her beloved Adelyn Bernstein. She served as a role model to her children and grandchildren in how to be a strong, independent woman of conviction, successful in business and philanthropic in nature. She was an avid fan of the Houston Rockets, volunteer at the Holocaust Museum and member of Congregation Emanu El. The funeral service will be held at Emanu El Memorial Park in the Kagan-Rudy Chapel on Monday, November 19, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. with Rabbi Roy Walter officiating. A private memorial service will be held in California. Donations in Kay’s honor may be made to SEARCH www.searchhomeless.org/donate/.