Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Gilberg, Katherine Mestemaker October 20, 2019
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Pat Currigan currigan1932@comcast.net October 19, 2020, 9:13 am

Ionia Sentinel Standard-Wed. Oct. 30,  2019

KATHERINE MESTEMAKER GILBERT, 78
Katherine Mestemaker Gilberg left this earth on October 20, 2019, and most 
likely is satiating her longtime curiosity about what comes next.

Katherine was born n Sept. 25, 1941, in Kalamazoo, but grew up in Lyons, 
raised by beloved grandmother. She attended Twin Rivers Elementary School and 
graduated from Lyons High School. She loved sports, and was always up for a 
neighborhood game of softball or basketball.

Katherine left Michigan State University in 1960, during her first year 
there, to join Dempsey Hovland's World Famous Texas Cowgirls Basketball Team, 
a barnstorming women's team that traveled around the country to play 
exhibition games against men, by men's rules. Her family was none to pleased 
with her decision, but Katherine was determined (or stubborn, some would say) 
and fiercely independent. She hit the road. Those were traits of hers her 
whole life.

The Texas Cowgirls also traveled to Spain and french Morocco, where they 
performed in U.S.O. shows at military bases around the Mediterranean. They 
entertained troops stationed in northern Alaska, too. Katherine played for 
eight years, averaging 150 games a year. She was often a leading scorer.

After her basketball career, Katherine worked on the line at Chrysler in 
Lyons and got married. Then she changed jobs and became the first woman in 
the Chrysler Corporation in plant protection and security. She worked at 
Chrysler for 10 years, until the Lyons plant closed in 1979.

After that Katherine was hired by the city of Ionia, where she dispatched for 
the police department for 10 years. Then she moved to Ionia County Central 
Dispatch, where she was a 911 dispatcher for 16 years. She retired on Oct. 
20, 2008. Katherine enjoyed helping people in the community, and she was 
always protective of the police officers she often had to send into dangerous 
situations.

A natural and gifted storyteller, Katherine wrote stories about growing up in 
her small town on the river and her adventures playing ball and working at 
911.  She had an eye and an ear for detail, and conveyed a great deal in very 
few words, which is pretty much how she was in a conversation, too.

She also was a frustrated artist, forever trying to learn to draw and paint 
with the talent her grandmother had. She was always on the lookout for that 
one book that would hold the answer... and it was an excuse to go to the 
bookstore and dine at her favorite restaurant, Bar Louis.

Katherine loved the Detroit Tigers, pitcher Justin Verlander and singer Josh 
Groban, and her TV was always on when any one of them was being televised. 
She was an eclectic reader from mysteries to history to biographies to 
spirituality.

Katherine was kind and generous to everyone she encountered, and loyal. She 
had a particular soft spot for animals, especially for the stray cats that 
made her barn their home. They never went hungry. Her dog, Heidi, will miss 
her.

More than anything, Katherine was proud of her children, grandchildren and 
great-grandchildren - proud of the people they have become and are becoming. 
She was genuinely happy that they are all happy, healthy and doing what they 
love to do in their lives.

She is survived by daughter Marcie (John) of Hudson, New York; son Joe 
(Alaina) of Austin, TX; grandson don of Caro, MI: granddaughter Jamie of San 
Francisco; four great-grandchildren, Landon, Addison, Olivia, and Henry; and 
special friend Karen Bota of Ionia.

Funeral services wre held at noon Tuesday, October 29, 2019, at Lake Funeral 
Home in Ionia with Pastor Jon Prominski officiating. Visitation was two hours 
prior to the service (Light refreshments at Sozo's in Ionia after the 
service). In lieu of flowers those wising may make memorial contributions to 
Ionia County Humane Society. Online condolences may be made at 
lakefuneralhomes.com

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