Kay Witt 6/17/1941 -- 12/23/2025
Mom was fond of saying that if every parent tried for as long as she and dad did before finally being blessed with children, every child would be utterly cherished. Their children and grandchildren feel the same way about them.
Karen Marie Pofahl was born June 17, 1941 to Charles and Marie Pofahl. She was baptized on Pearl Harbor Day.
Mom's parents discouraged her from attending college, insisting the education would be wasted on a girl. Mom ignored them and attended UW-Madison, where she met Bill, the love of her life, in a shared journalism class. They both worked for the Daily Cardinal and then the Wisconsin State Journal. They married June 2, 1962, despite her mother's insistence that their relationship would never last.
After her job as an editor at the Wisconsin State Journal, mom worked as a UW - Extension publication editor, which afforded her the opportunity to travel to Scotland and England in the late 1960s, on a tour with many retired teachers. Her interactions with these teachers led her to go into education herself, where she excelled for 33 years, teaching English and assisting special needs students.
After twelve years of marriage, our parents were finally blessed with two delightful, perfect, well-behaved children. Really! You can ask them.
In the 1980s, with two children in grade school, mom attained superhero status by attaining her Master's degree while also being an awesome parent, teacher, and cottage industry crafter of seed pod stitcheries. She continued to work as an educator until she was 70. Eventually, our parents were blessed with three cherished grandchildren - Katie, Ratz, and Evelyn.
Mom was a champion of environmental causes, helping to create "People For Green Space" and receiving an Audubon award for backyard wildlife habitat. She helped create a wonderful mystery book club which met for decades and had a yearly "How To Host A Murder" dress-up party. She was a prolific knitter and crocheter, created incredible trapunto stitcheries, and did textural crewel embroidery of wildlife and plant life. She also had a green thumb and created gloriously chaotic English cottage gardens wherever she went, like the Johnny Appleseed of native plants and wildflowers.
Our parents had 55 years of wedded bliss. After dad passed, mom could most often be found on her front porch glider during the warm months, holding court like the queen she was and watching the world go by.
Our parents had many cats over the years, but mom's favourite was Sherlock, a flamepoint Siamese who was found abandoned in a box by the river in Bukolt park. Mom had a Gorey sweatshirt emblazoned with "Books. Cats. Life is good." A good life it was, too.
As much as she missed dad, mom was reluctant to leave behind Katie and Ratz ["Squid" (Scott) Trzebiatowski] and Evelyn [Margaret (Paul Leonard)]. But all journeys must inevitably come to an end, and mom's story transitioned to the next chapter when she slipped peacefully away with a gentle sigh, at home with her loved ones.
Mom had a couple of mantras:
"Life's short: eat dessert first"
"Above all, be kind".
Our special gratitude to:
Dr. Hahn and her staff
Dr. Onitilo and his staff (for giving us five bonus years with EACH of our parents)
The Cardiac ICU and Palliative Care Unit at Aspirus Wausau
Compassus/Home Instead Hospice in Stevens Point
