and had lived a long and happy life full of love for family, friends and humankind.
Although her energy and zest for life suffered from the onset of dementia, she
continued to live her life with grace, dignity and kindness for all.
Kay was born on January 13, 1926 in New Albany, Indiana to Herman and Margaret
Detrick. Her childhood years were spent with her two brothers, Charlie and H.K., and
many cousins. While coming of age through the Great Depression and WW II, she
learned the values of hard work, thrift and sacrifice. In High School she was
Valedictorian and President of her senior class. In college, she earned a degree in accounting at Indiana University. Following the war, upon his return from fighting in the Pacific, she married Charles “Bud” Endris. They raised three children and lived the normal life of the fifties and sixties. Bud’s career offered new opportunities in the Philadelphia area, then Boston and New York before finally returning the family to Massachusetts.
Kay enjoyed many achievements during her life in addition to raising a family. She
became Town Accountant for Rockland, MA and then, in the mid seventies assumed
the same position for the Town of Dennis. She thrived in that position and especially
enjoyed advising citizens and Selectmen of financial consequences of proposed town
meeting warrants. After retiring from the town in 1991, she joined her son Dale’s company, Dennis East International, fully retiring at the age of 80.
Although Kay was raised in a very conservative southern Indiana family noted for
individual resourcefulness and independence, her religious beliefs encouraged her to help the disadvantaged. Kay’s mother would react with dismay upon Kay’s return home from school without her coat, or gloves or hat. Kay explained that her friend from the other side of town needed it more than she did. She carried on that spirit in later life during her marches in Washington DC for civil rights and peace. She became the chair in the Town of Braintree for the newly formed METCO program of Boston which encouraged non white children to study in suburban schools. Had she been able, she would have enthusiastically participated in the Black Lives Matter marches of today. Kay was a long and active member of the Cape Cod Covenant Church.
Kay leaves two sons and their wives, Steve and Ellen of Barnstable, Dale and Janet of
East Dennis and her daughter Susan Calnan of Freeport, ME, as well as eight grand children and twelve great grandchildren. Burial will be at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in South Dennis, MA, with a family gathering after the interment, celebrating her life. Although Kay was a avid gardener who displayed beautiful flowers at her home on Meadowspring Drive in Dennis, please donate in Kay’s memory to Bright Focus Foundation, PO Box 1952, Clarksburg, MD 20871-1952 (brightfocus.org) in lieu of flowers.
