Kathryn Adele Porter Keck

July 28, 1936 - September 16, 2017

Kathryn Keck, or Kathe to family and friends, passed away at home in San Mateo, CA, on September 16 after 11 years of fighting breast cancer. She is survived by her adoring husband, Frank, of San Mateo, four children—Kimberly (Mark) Weinstein, Frank III (Rachel), Thomas (Antoinette), and Lucy (Michael) de Anda— and 11 grandchildren: Rachel and Shoshana Weinstein (Boston and Seattle); Dax, Leo, and Adelyn Keck (Kansas City); Elisabeth, Maxwell, and Madeleine Keck (San Diego); and Charlotte, Josephine, and Garrett de Anda (San Francisco). She adored them all and left a lasting impression on each one. An infant daughter, Edith Adelle Keck, preceded her in death. She also leaves behind her brother John Porter of Omaha, and sister Janice Lee Porter of Portland, OR, as well as many nieces and nephews (and grandnieces and -nephews) around the country.

Kathe was born on July 28, 1936, at Carle Hospital in Urbana, IL. Her father, Dr. G.L. Porter, an ophthalmologist, was one of the hospital’s eight founding physicians. Her mother was the former Janice “Jace” O’Brien, a Nebraska native. Kathe was named for her grandmothers, Kathryn Hafer Porter and Susannah Adele “Della” Mason O’Brien, who as young girls had both moved with their families to Nebraska homesteads.

Kathe grew up in Urbana, except for four years spent near Pueblo, CO, when her father served as a major in the Army Medical Corps during World War II. Kathe graduated from Urbana High School, then headed back to her beloved Colorado for college at the University of Colorado in Boulder, majoring in education. In those days, she said, a girl could be anything she wanted as long as she became a teacher or a nurse.

Upon graduating in 1958, Kathe and six of her girlfriends left for the San Francisco Bay Area to teach, but on a visit home for the holidays, she met Frank D. Keck II on a blind date; afterward they were not apart for long. They married on March 30, 1959, at the Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church in Champaign.

While Frank was owner of Keck’s Furniture and a championship golfer, Kathe did her best to host dinner parties and special occasions for their extended family and wide network of friends in Champaign-Urbana. With her sparkling wit, talent for “gracious living,” and abundant creativity and energy, Kathe created a vibrant, loving home for her own family and also hosted nephews and Rotary International exchange students for extended periods, treating them all as her children.

She loved skiing, tennis, bridge, and reading. At her core, she was an artist. She was always busy with projects: She crafted exquisite garments and contributed decorative touches around the house and across the community. At first a master seamstress, she soon applied her intricate needlepoint skills to pillows, wall hangings, mirror frames, and cushions for the church kneelers, then took up hand-knitting fabulous sweaters. She later transitioned to entrepreneurship as a knitwear designer, teacher, and Passap knitting machine representative. The name she chose for her shop, Knitpicky, was forever after her moniker as well.

Kathe was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, Social Science, and the Junior League. She served on the Champaign County Bank and Trust board of directors. Kathe’s ability to inspire others especially shone during the many years of her Uganda project. Starting with a trip to Kabale in 1998, Kathe identified a need she could meet: training impoverished women to knit on knitting machines and sell their wares. By drawing on local and international Rotary grants, corporate sponsorships, and hundreds of volunteers in four states and two countries, she was able to assemble a total of 3 shipping containers full of school supplies, refurbished computers, over 30,000 books, sporting equipment, and yarn in addition to the knitting machines needed for the project. In 2000, she and Frank, accompanied by Phil and Jeanne Oneacre, traveled back to Kabale. There, they would establish a training team with a yarn supply to instruct village women in how to operate and design on donated knitting machines, thereby earning an income.

When Kathe and Frank retired to Bonita Springs, FL, in 2001, she brought her gift for throwing lively parties and also took up golf and jewelry-making, developing lasting friendships with a new community of neighbors. The couple moved to the West Coast in 2013 to be closer to three of their children and their families and to top medical centers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco. Her last endeavor, inspired by the wonderful palliative care team at Stanford University, was her Hearts of Hope project; she crafted over 100 individual Fimo clay hearts for the Stanford team to hand out to newly diagnosed cancer patients. Her family plans to carry on the project in her honor.

A memorial service will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, October 2, 2017, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 415 El Camino Real, Burlingame, CA 94010. The funeral will be held on Monday, November 6, 2017, at Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church, 208 West University Avenue, Champaign, IL 61820. The service will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the interment at Roselawn/ Mt. Hope Cemetery, Champaign, and a reception at the iHotel, 1900 South First Street, Champaign, IL 61820.

If desired, in lieu of flowers a memorial donations may be made to the following, or a charity of your choice:

Sage Patient Advocates, att: Steve Kandel, 12515 Semillon Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92131

Stanford Women’s Cancer Center P.O. Box 20466, Stanford, CA 94309-0466

Mission Hospice 1670 South Amphlett Boulevard. #300, San Mateo, CA 94402

Page’s ALS https:// www.facebook.com/PagesALSChallenge/

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 415 El Camino Real, Burlingame, CA 94010

Emmanuel Memorial Church 208 West University Avenue, Champaign, IL 61820