Mary Kathleen Richey

Mary Kathleen Rafferty Richey, known most of her adult life as Kathy, passed away on Friday June 30, 2023 at the age of 86 in Austin, Texas. She was born in Batavia, New York and, although she lived all over the United States from Maine to Alaska, considered Evergreen, Colorado her home.

Kathy had a creative and curious intellect and always looked out for the welfare of others before thinking about herself. She enjoyed a multitude of interests including reading literature and poetry, playing piano, antique book restoration and conservation, petit point needlepoint, hardscape architecture, interior design, and oil painting resulting in a deep appreciation for beauty in all its forms. She was an artist, seeing nuances in light, shadow, and reflection that others simply look past. She never accepted that an object had only one purpose and could see infinite possibilities for something as simple as a shoe box. She loved the feel of beautiful fabric and was a skilled seamstress designing and tailoring bespoke clothing for her entire family. She surrounded herself with music, enjoying her big band and jazz records as much as her extensive classical music CD collection. When music was not playing, she either could hear a melody in her head or was recalling stanzas of some long-remembered poem, her favorites being Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Rudyard Kipling’s “If.”

Kathy was incredibly smart choosing to work at jobs that required her to utilize her unique intelligence. The list is long and varied from collaborating with the physicists at Argonne National Laboratory during the early days of particle physics research to Librarian at Evergreen Public Library. She was an amateur genealogist and was proud of her ancestry on both her mother and father’s sides to patriots that fought in the Revolutionary War. This interest led her to become a founding member of the Mountain Rendezvous Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Her children considered her to be the best mother in the world, unlike any other, brilliant, strong, and courageous. Some of their most important lessons were learned while living on top of a mountain where there was no quick and easy access to neighbors or town. It was here that Kathy encouraged her kids to explore the woods on their own, allowing them to blaze their own trails through the forest and build strong forts for protection. These early experiences gave them the confidence and willingness to try new things and explore their surroundings, instilling in them a fierce self-reliance and an insistence on integrity and truth. Kathy was the first to cheer their successes, but, when necessary, she required her children to solve their own problems, gently reminding them the words “should have, would have, could have” were not allowed. She taught her children to read and write before they ever set foot in a classroom and, putting her own fears aside, protected them during hurricanes in New Orleans and blizzards in Alaska and Colorado. She taught them that ice cream tastes better when eaten with a silver spoon and to spend time sitting quietly watching the light change as the sun sets. Most importantly she taught them to never dwell on the difficulties that life throws your way but rather to continue moving forward by focusing on positive opportunities instead. She was deeply loved and made the world a much better place.

Kathy was preceded in death by her husband of fifty-two years, James M. Richey, III, her parents William and Bessie Rafferty, and her three brothers, Bill, George and John Rafferty.

She is survived by her son James M. Richey, IV, her granddaughters Amber and Amanda Richey, grandson James M. Richey, V, daughter Nancy Misage and son-in-law Mark Misage.

The family would like to thank Claudia Misage for being Kathy’s guardian angel and best of friends in the final weeks of her life. A private family memorial will be held later to remember Kathy and her extraordinary life.

To honor Kathy, in lieu of flowers, please consider donating to The University of Illinois YMCA Fred Bailey Scholarship Program (https://universityymca.org/bailey/our-impact/) as she was one of the first recipients of the scholarship in 1957 and could not have afforded to attend the University of Illinois without it. She believed this opportunity was what made all the difference in her life.