Kathryn Francis Neihengen (nee Wolf) passed peacefully on November 24, 2025. She is survived by her beloved husband of 53 years, Raymond; loving children, Jennifer (Brett) Soukup, Christopher (Rebecca), Jonathan, and Patrick (Sarah). Adoring Grandma to Carolyn and Charles Soukup, Liam, Ainsley, Quinn, Lucas and James Neihengen. She is preceded in death by her parents, Clarice and Edwin Wolf, and her brothers, Robert, Gordon and Eddie Wolf.
Kathy was born in 1947 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She grew up in St. Louis and Philadelphia before graduating from Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in 1968 where she began her nursing career at the University of Pennsylvania hospital as an operating room nurse. A chance encounter with Ray through a mutual friend in New York led to a commuter romance culminating in marriage in 1972. Ten months later her career and a move to Yonkers, New York, Kathy found her true calling, being a stay-at-home mom which continued until her passing. Caring, confiding, cheering, coaching, and yes discipline, were all performed in an outstanding manner. Her love of reading and creating beautiful needlepoint pictures, crocheted rugs, blankets, and sweaters filled her spare career hours. Her greatest accomplishment was four outstanding adults and seven beloved grandchildren.
A visitation will be held at 10 AM on Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at St. Mary Parish, 10 N Buffalo Grove Rd, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089. Funeral mass will begin at 11AM. Interment to follow at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, IL. In lieu of flowers, please honor Kathryn’s memory with a prayerful gift to St. Mary Parish, a community that held deep meaning in her life.
