Kathryn Ann Fair

Born on 8 April 1930, in Bertha, a small town in North Central Minnesota, Kathryn Ann Bottemiller was the second daughter of W.K. “Butch” and Ruth Vivian Bottemiller; and the fraternal twin to W. Karl Bottemiller. Nicknamed “Kathy”, she grew up in Bertha where her father was a mechanic, an electrician, a Ford Motor Company Dealer, and the Mayor. Kathy was a devoted member of the Congregational Church. She was active in community affairs and school events, playing the flute in her high school band.

In 1952, Kathryn graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. Later, in 1978, she received her Master of Education degree in Library Science from the University of Las Vegas (UNLV).

Kathy followed graduation from Macalester College with a five-year career as a grade school teacher in Red Wing, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Oregon; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Having to put her career aside for twenty years in order to raise a family, Kathy resumed her profession in 1977, first as a graduate assistant librarian at UNLV, next as the librarian at Beekman Elementary School in New York. She briefly ended her work in 1984 by moving from New York to Maryland and then to Colorado. In 1994, at Wilson United Methodist Church, Colorado Springs, Kathy started a praiseworthy church library from scratch, and built it to over 800 volumes in four years.

It was in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1956 that Kathy met, and a year later married, Air Force Lt. John C. “Jack” Fair. Together they raised a son, John and two daughters, Patricia and Jane. Later, they were blessed with a granddaughter, Kathryn Allyson (Katy). Assuming her role of military officer’s wife required frequent moves from Nevada, to Minnesota, to France, to New Mexico, to Arizona, to Texas, to Germany, and finally, back to Nevada where Jack retired as a Lt. Colonel in 1978.

After retiring from the Air Force, Jack took a position with IBM Corporation at Poughkeepsie, New York; leaving son, John and daughter, Patricia, behind at college in Las Vegas. Kathy once again began moving the family around the country from Nevada to New York, to Maryland, to Oklahoma, to Colorado, and eventually in 1998 to Air Force Village in San Antonio, Texas.

Claiming a lifetime of achievements, Kathryn Ann (Bottemiller) Fair can be proud of her heritage, her education, her career, over twenty years as the ‘Lieutenant’s Wife’ and seventeen years as an IBMer. She was a Daughter of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) and United States Daughters of 1812. Most of all, she was the perfect wife, a wonderful mother, and grandmother.

Kathryn will be laid to rest in a private family ceremony at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.