Katherine Isabelle Hegquist Stevens

She was born on November 22, 1987 in Columbia, SC to Dr. Mitchell Henry and Isabelle Virginia Walden Hegquist and immediately alarmed everyone in the hospital room by sticking her tongue out past her chin - a trick she continued to employ to great effect over the years. As a daughter and being first born “she was loved best because she was our first miracle, the genesis of a marriage, the fulfillment of young love, the promise of our infinity.” - Erma Bombeck, “Three Children Loved Best by One Mom”

An artist from the beginning, she was always drawing on any surface she could find. She was a graduate of AC Flora High School and attended Clemson University on an academic scholarship, graduating Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2010.

She married her high school sweetheart, Major Daniel Parker Stevens, in 2014, after ten years together. They traveled the world together, and stood through the storm as Parker deployed three times with the United States Army. She worked in graphic design after school, and later started her own company to balance her artwork with multiple moves across the country and their growing family. At every new post they were assigned, she worked to establish bible groups and new friends. The two of them most recently learned Russian in Monterey, CA before being stationed with their family in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Katherine was predeceased by her most loving father, and she wouldn’t want us to overlook their two pups already in heaven, Lola and Forrest. She leaves a hole in the lives of her beloved husband, Daniel Parker Stevens, with whom she was lucky enough to have nineteen years, though it should have been fifty more; their beautiful sons Daniel Walden Stevens, John Parker Stevens, and Matthew Hegquist Stevens who look just like her and evoke her memory in every phrase and mannerism; her siblings Anna Elizabeth Hegquist Muthig (Chris) and Stephen Carl Hegquist who will deeply miss the bites she stole out of their snacks; her mother Isabelle Virginia Walden Hegquist who will never forget the day she first held her; her many aunts, uncles, and cousins who will miss her heckling and plotting even during the least competitive games; and her many friends with whom she faithfully kept up over time and distance.

Katherine was a fiercely loving, deeply silly, intelligent, and kind woman for whom God and family were utmost, who could never be captured in a few paragraphs. When she was with her family, she never wanted their time together to end, and she hated leaving the party early. We will all miss her laughter, ever-embracing love, non-stop lists, wittiness and holiday cookies at every get together. The world is a little bit less bright without her.

The burial will be private. Please contact her family for details on a celebration of life November 11.