In Memoriam
This website was first built in 2011 as an opportunity to preserve the legacy of Kate Soehner’s paintings. Kate continued to be active after 2010 painting and planning projects, until several months before her passing on May 12th 2015.
Kate Soehner peacefully passed just one day shy of her eighty ninth birthday. Her body failed, though her mind and energy and enthusiasm for life sometimes appeared boundless. Her last efforts were a half completed portrait of a child and another portrait.
Her legacy goes beyond per paintings. She was a formidable force who carved out a life with many accomplishments and some setbacks, and after every setback she took a bold step forward. That was Kate!
Family and friends browsed through her home and garage studio to find an endless array and collection of paintings, prints, half completed sketches, shelf upon shelf of art books, canvasses and frames, brushes and paints and colored pencils, and all the artist’s stuff that occupied her home and her life. Surely, many of these distributed items shall give pleasure to others for years to come. As an example, a large and magnificent collection of art books is now being shared in a local Art League; and her paintings are being hung on new walls to be enjoyed by many others.
Kate now joins her beloved Ken, a good man, her husband and good friend and a World War II veteran. She cared for Ken fearlessly and patiently for many of his final years.. Also, Kate joins her beloved cats, Samantha and Gabriella, as was her wish. In a quiet country side in Colorado, together, they shall mark their final foot step on this Earth in a United States Military Cemetery. God love them.
Enjoy the legacy of Kate’s paintings and the legacy of the life she lived so well, by visiting her website. Not only to remember Kate, but hopefully her painting of a flower or a landscape or a portrait or a cat will connect you to the wonderful world that Kate so keenly observed and preserved for us.
For those of us who knew Kate, the person and her works and the legacy of her life, there is no issue in finding pleasant opportunities to remember her. We remember her by celebrating her life and enjoying her works of art and recalling pleasant memories of her very best of days and some of her medical challenges in her later life.
We can imagine that she would have her own personal pleasant thoughts of wanting us to remember her. In the song that follows, "Remember Me Remember Me," imagine Kate pleasantly imploring us to remember her. In the everyday events and experiences of our lives we shall find opportunities to remember her. Yes, we shall remember her well.
Please watch the video below and imagine Kate speaking to us.
Richard Nannariello May 28, 2015