Kathe Feten, age 86, passed away from Alzheimer’s disease on March 13, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, California.
Kathe was born in August, 1931, to Katharina Marty and Christian Huwyler in Zug, Switzerland. She was the ninth of eleven children which included nine girls and two boys. Their childhood was difficult during the Great Depression and World War II, but they all worked hard and remained close all of their lives. When she was 14 she left her family home to start working as a housekeeper and a nanny. Over the next seven years she lived and worked in France, Italy and England.
When Kathe was 21 she took a boat to New York City in route to take a job as a nanny for a family in Lincoln, Nebraska, for one year. Her ultimate goal was to move to California where her cousin lived. While working as a nanny in San Francisco, she went to a dance and met Lewis “Cliff” Feten. They married in 1956 and lived in San Mateo county for three years and Heidi and Dave were born during that time. After that they lived in Sacramento for three years where Cliff had a job at Mather Air Force Base. In 1962 he took a job as an engineer at the Pacific Missile Test Center, Point Mugu Naval Air Station, and her family moved to their new home in Thousand Oaks. Shortly thereafter Ed was born and their family was complete.
Tragedy struck their family when Cliff passed away in 1975 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. While still finishing raising her children, Kathe took a few odd jobs, but ultimately came back to being a nanny again. She was a member of a Swiss Club and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. She loved to walk each day, swim in her pool, take classes and traveled to visit her family in Switzerland many times in addition to traveling to Alaska, China, India, Spain, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the Panama Canal, Thailand, and took a boat cruise to Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
Kathe is survived by her children; Heidi Freaney, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dave (Mary), Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Ed, Camarillo, and four granddaughters: Claudia and Ingrid Freaney and Haley and Erika Feten, sister, Hedwig, brother, Christian, many nieces and nephews, especially Gaby Bachofner, and her companion, Dwayne Churches. Kathe was preceded in passing by sisters, Margrit, Frida, Marianne, Josy, Elmina, Bernadette and Rita and brother, Josef.
We appreciate the caregivers at Atria Hillcrest and with hospice who helped enrich Kathe’s life while living there and in her final days.
The service and burial will take place on Thursday, March 22, at 10 am at Chapel of the Oaks, Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village. Pastor Erik Goehner of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church will preside.
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