| Kathryn Porter Huestis |
Published in The News & Observer on February 16, 2011
Kathryn Porter Huestis
October 22, 1922 - February 10, 2011 Durham
Kathryn Porter Huestis, 88, beloved mother, grandmother, sister, and friend,
passed away on February 10, 2011, after suffering a stroke.
Kay was born October 22, 1922, in Port Angeles, Washington, the daughter
of Claude Albert Porter and Irene Kemp Porter.
After graduating as valedictorian from Roosevelt High School in 1939, she
attended the University of Washington for two years, until marriage to Charles B.
Huestis on March 1, 1942, and WWII interrupted her studies. During the war,
while Chuck was serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Whitehorse in the
Yukon Territory and on Attu in the Aleutian Islands, Kay worked as a bank teller
in Seattle. After the war, Kay and Chuck moved to California, where his work
took them to El Cerrito, Novato, Fullerton, Alamo, Tucson (Arizona), and Palos
Verdes. In 1966, Chuck accepted a job as Vice President for Business and
Finance at Duke University, and they spent their remaining years in Durham.
When their daughter Robin enrolled at Duke in 1971, Kay joined her there and
finished her college education, earning a degree in music in 1975.
Notwithstanding the 30-year gap between her sophomore year at Washington
and her third year of college, she was Phi Beta Kappa and second in the class at
Duke.
Kay was a musician throughout her life: playing piano at church since age 12,
serving as church organist at several different churches in California, singing in
community groups and musical theater productions, playing folk guitar,
accompanying Duke voice students and faculty, performing across North
Carolina with violinist Dorothy Kitchen, teaching piano, and entertaining a
nursing home's Alzheimers patients by playing the piano for sing-alongs.
In addition to music, Kay had a passion for languages, studying French, German,
Italian, and Spanish. She was a life-long student; in addition to languages, her
studies ranged from voice, guitar, and computer to yoga, quilting, and
speed-reading. She and Chuck traveled extensively and had close friends
worldwide.
She participated in several bridge groups and loved hiking, biking, walking,
tennis, and dancing.
Kay was a great cook and enjoyed hosting parties, large holiday gatherings of
family and friends, and groups of Duke students. She became interested in
"health foods" long before it was fashionable and overhauled the family's diet
back in the 60's. She taught not only her children and grandchildren, but also a
series of Duke students, including football players, how to make homemade
bread, known affectionately to her family as "Nana bread."
Kay loved Duke basketball and her family has an abundance of sweaters that
she made while "knitting the team to victory" when the score got tight. She
attended her last game in Cameron Indoor Stadium with three of her
grandchildren just two days before her stroke.
Kay was a member of Los Concioneros in Southern California, many
Newcomers clubs, Allied Arts of Durham, the Friday Morning Music Study Club
in Durham, the Durham Music Teachers Association, the Durham Choral
Society, several bridge clubs and Hillyer Memorial Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) in Raleigh.
She is survived by her sister, Phyllis A. Porter of Pismo Beach, California; by
three children: her son, Stephen Porter Huestis and his wife, Deidra Huestis, of
Albuquerque, New Mexico; her son, Jeffrey Charles Huestis of St. Louis,
Missouri; and her daughter, Robin Huestis Prak and her husband, Mark J. Prak,
of Raleigh; by five grandchildren: Juliana Marie Huestis of New York City;
George Maxwell Huestis of St. Louis; Suzanne Prak Bostwick and her husband,
Jay Bostwick, of Greenville, South Carolina; Mary Katherine Prak of Raleigh;
and Kelly Jean Prak of Memphis, Tennessee; and by her loving caregiver,
Shirley Hawkins.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles B. Huestis, and by her
brothers, Milton Porter and Alan Porter.
A memorial service and celebration of Kay's life will be held at 4:00 p.m. on
Saturday, February 26, 2011, at Hillyer Memorial Christian Church, 718
Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, with visitation to follow in the Fellowship Hall.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that persons desiring to make donations in
Kay's honor consider Hillyer Memorial Christian Church, 718 Hillsborough
Street, Raleigh, NC 27603; the Durham Music Teachers Association Scholarship
Fund, 15 Streamview Court, Durham, NC 27713
(scholarship@durhammusicteachers.com); or the Alzheimer's Association , P.O.
Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011 (www.alz.org).
Kathryn Porter Huestis
October 22, 1922 - February 10, 2011 Durham
Kathryn Porter Huestis, 88, beloved mother, grandmother, sister, and friend,
passed away on February 10, 2011, after suffering a stroke.
Kay was born October 22, 1922, in Port Angeles, Washington, the daughter
of Claude Albert Porter and Irene Kemp Porter.
After graduating as valedictorian from Roosevelt High School in 1939, she
attended the University of Washington for two years, until marriage to Charles B.
Huestis on March 1, 1942, and WWII interrupted her studies. During the war,
while Chuck was serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Whitehorse in the
Yukon Territory and on Attu in the Aleutian Islands, Kay worked as a bank teller
in Seattle. After the war, Kay and Chuck moved to California, where his work
took them to El Cerrito, Novato, Fullerton, Alamo, Tucson (Arizona), and Palos
Verdes. In 1966, Chuck accepted a job as Vice President for Business and
Finance at Duke University, and they spent their remaining years in Durham.
When their daughter Robin enrolled at Duke in 1971, Kay joined her there and
finished her college education, earning a degree in music in 1975.
Notwithstanding the 30-year gap between her sophomore year at Washington
and her third year of college, she was Phi Beta Kappa and second in the class at
Duke.
Kay was a musician throughout her life: playing piano at church since age 12,
serving as church organist at several different churches in California, singing in
community groups and musical theater productions, playing folk guitar,
accompanying Duke voice students and faculty, performing across North
Carolina with violinist Dorothy Kitchen, teaching piano, and entertaining a
nursing home's Alzheimers patients by playing the piano for sing-alongs.
In addition to music, Kay had a passion for languages, studying French, German,
Italian, and Spanish. She was a life-long student; in addition to languages, her
studies ranged from voice, guitar, and computer to yoga, quilting, and
speed-reading. She and Chuck traveled extensively and had close friends
worldwide.
She participated in several bridge groups and loved hiking, biking, walking,
tennis, and dancing.
Kay was a great cook and enjoyed hosting parties, large holiday gatherings of
family and friends, and groups of Duke students. She became interested in
"health foods" long before it was fashionable and overhauled the family's diet
back in the 60's. She taught not only her children and grandchildren, but also a
series of Duke students, including football players, how to make homemade
bread, known affectionately to her family as "Nana bread."
Kay loved Duke basketball and her family has an abundance of sweaters that
she made while "knitting the team to victory" when the score got tight. She
attended her last game in Cameron Indoor Stadium with three of her
grandchildren just two days before her stroke.
Kay was a member of Los Concioneros in Southern California, many
Newcomers clubs, Allied Arts of Durham, the Friday Morning Music Study Club
in Durham, the Durham Music Teachers Association, the Durham Choral
Society, several bridge clubs and Hillyer Memorial Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) in Raleigh.
She is survived by her sister, Phyllis A. Porter of Pismo Beach, California; by
three children: her son, Stephen Porter Huestis and his wife, Deidra Huestis, of
Albuquerque, New Mexico; her son, Jeffrey Charles Huestis of St. Louis,
Missouri; and her daughter, Robin Huestis Prak and her husband, Mark J. Prak,
of Raleigh; by five grandchildren: Juliana Marie Huestis of New York City;
George Maxwell Huestis of St. Louis; Suzanne Prak Bostwick and her husband,
Jay Bostwick, of Greenville, South Carolina; Mary Katherine Prak of Raleigh;
and Kelly Jean Prak of Memphis, Tennessee; and by her loving caregiver,
Shirley Hawkins.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles B. Huestis, and by her
brothers, Milton Porter and Alan Porter.
A memorial service and celebration of Kay's life will be held at 4:00 p.m. on
Saturday, February 26, 2011, at Hillyer Memorial Christian Church, 718
Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, with visitation to follow in the Fellowship Hall.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that persons desiring to make donations in
Kay's honor consider Hillyer Memorial Christian Church, 718 Hillsborough
Street, Raleigh, NC 27603; the Durham Music Teachers Association Scholarship
Fund, 15 Streamview Court, Durham, NC 27713
(scholarship@durhammusicteachers.com); or the Alzheimer's Association , P.O.
Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011 (www.alz.org).
