Katie A. McDaniel

Katherine (Katie) McDaniel passed away on Friday, January 20th in her home in Pleasant Hill, MO. A Memorial Service will be held at McGilley & Sheil Funeral Home at 11924 E. 47th Street on Saturday, January 28th at 2:00 pm with visitation one hour prior to the service. Donations can be made to Crossroads Hospice and Wayside Waifs of Kansas City.

Katie was born on February 12, 1975 in Warrensburg, MO. She moved to Marshall with her parents in 1977. She attended Saint Peter Elementary School and graduated from Marshall High School. At age 5 she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and received treatment at the University Hospital in Columbia. In 1984, at the age of 9 she had a bone marrow transplant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her sister Cara donated her bone marrow and the procedure was successful. Between the ages of 5 and 11, Katie endured a lot of painful procedures and was not always able to participate in typical childhood activities. She missed a lot of school and was home-schooled by a family friend, Gwen Zellers. Katie was a gifted artist and learned to love quieter activities such as drawing, painting and calligraphy. She also loved reading and watching movies about magical worlds and creatures such as The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, The Last Unicorn, The Secret of NIMH, The Dark Crystal, The Hobbit and everything by Roald Dahl. These were stories about people going through troubled times but there were always heroes and happy endings. Because of her illness, we had a need to believe in magic.

In 1993, she moved to Lee’s Summit with her family where she worked at Walmart for 16 years. She worked in several departments but will be best remembered for baking treats for her co-workers on special occasions. In 2008 she bought her home in Pleasant Hill where she lived with Will Hudson. She enjoyed her cats, her collections of treasures from her childhood and spending time with family and friends. Every year she and Will threw an epic Halloween Party. Every room in the house was decorated with beautiful Halloween decorations, not gory, creepy stuff, that wasn’t her style. She collected Peanuts, Strawberry Shortcake dolls and The Nightmare Before Christmas. During her last year and a half when she could no longer work she commented that she loved being at home with her cats and her things and felt like she could really enjoy them.

Katie was in relatively good health throughout her teens and up until 2015 when she had a stroke. While she was in the hospital they found ovarian cancer and a mass in her brain. She had surgery and chemo and appeared to be doing well but a follow up check in August of 2016 showed the tumors were continuing to grow. She had more chemo without success. We are really happy we were able to celebrate one more Halloween and one more Christmas with her. She loved the holidays. We are also grateful that she was never really in pain.

Katie was preceded in death by her maternal grandfather Henry Brandt, paternal grandmother Margie McDaniel and cousin, Lyndsey Michelle Brandt. She is survived by her parents: Robin and Joe McDaniel, siblings: Cara, Ben and Matt McDaniel, nephew: Rowan Matthew McDaniel, paternal grandfather, Harold McDaniel, maternal grandmother, Helen Brandt, friend, Harrison McCallop, soulmate: Will Hudson and his family: Vic, Teresa, Christian, Rebecca, Makaley and Caydin Hudson, aunts and uncles: Mike Brandt, Richard and Debbie Waters, Dan and Cindy Brandt, Julie Brandt and Jeff Stockhorst, Laura Brandt, Dale and Linda McDaniel. cousins: Eric and Laura Brandt and family, Chris and Racheall Brandt and family, Becky and Christian Bonar and family, Jeremy Waters, Andrea and Stephen Mumford and family, Cassie and Mark Scheib and family, Allison and Morgan Evans, Craig and Brian McDaniel.

We will all miss Katie’s sweet dimpled smile, her thoughtfulness and her gentle manner.

We know she will always be with us in our hearts and we are expecting her to inspire us to be kinder and more creative. We needed more time, we weren’t finished yet. She doesn’t want our lights to dim, she will help us all shine brighter.