Katherine Simonton Obituary

Katherine Simonton
February 1, 1944
June 20, 2023

Katherine Julia Simonton Schlueter (02.01.44 - 06.20.23)
Katherine "Kaye" Simonton Schlueter battled through her 2016 stage 4 breast cancer and lymphoma diagnoses. However, in March 2023 an aggressive single-cell carcinoma, ureteral cancer, turned up uninvited. After unsuccessfully attempting to convince this unwanted guest to leave, Kaye made peace with her and entered Hospice treatment on June 9. She passed away courageously at home on June 20, 2023 at the age of 79 near her loving husband Rich Schlueter. Kaye was raised in Erie, PA under significant financial hardship. She experienced homelessness at one stage. Her father was institutionalized for the last nineteen years of his life and through much of her upbringing. He passed away when she was in her mid-20s. She got by with help from a protective mother and extended family, connectivity with her local church, the generosity of neighbors and her belief in an inclusive and powerful spirituality. She also used her circumstances to fuel her independence out of a will to survive and thrive. She walked several miles to her waitressing job in high school. She finished near the top of her high school class and worked forty hours a week as part of her work-study scholarship to Allegheny College. There she was president of her sorority, homecoming queen and met her first husband Steve Simonton. Two of her three goals growing up were to be a mother and a teacher. She achieved both by the age of twenty-three when she welcomed daughter Shelley to the world. Her first teaching gig was for grades 4-8 at the Little Laramie Valley View's 2-room school-house in the Snowy
Range of Wyoming. Son Mike would follow five years later. Music was the thread that weaved through Kaye's life. It was her rock from her first church solo at the age of three, to her solo at the new federal Senate building in Washington, D.C. as a sophomore in high school, to directing a Bob Hope USO event at Clark Air Force base in the Philippines in her early 20s where she and Shelley were stationed with Steve. When things were hard Kaye retreated to music as a therapeutic refuge. When things were coming together, she would similarly seek to grow through music – singing, piano, harp, percussion triangles, mandolin and others. After her divorce, Kaye reinvented herself in her 40s. She received her masters in special education at the age of 50 from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Her compassionate heart was drawn toward students with
more severe and complex needs. She listened to and advocated for them and at the same time she gained insights into, reflected upon and learned to retrospectively empathize with her father's condition as part of her own journey.
Among a variety of teaching roles, Kaye worked at the Griffith Residential Treatment Center, the Children's Ark Residential Treatment Center and the School for the Deaf and Blind. She also taught a severe needs autistic program in Colorado Springs District 11. Her career ultimately reached its pinnacle when she served as the Director of Disability Services at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Her third goal growing up was to feel unconditionally loved and safe. Achieving this goal was worth the wait. In her 50s she met and married the man of her dreams, Rich Schlueter. While teaching was a goal, her true gift was as a voracious life-long learner. Her loving marriage provided the foundation for her to comfortably pursue her interests which included reading, physical health, nutrition, volunteering, nature, traveling and hunting for fashion bargains. She didn't play any sports growing up. She took tennis lessons in her 20s. She then learned racquetball. In the decades that followed, Kaye won hundreds of local and statewide medals and trophies in both sports in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Utah. She competed in singles and mixed doubles tennis in the Senior Olympic Games, finishing in the top 10 nationally three times in women's singles for her age bracket. Two of those times she was fighting cancer. She was competitive and gracious. Win or lose she always found something to laugh about, especially when on the court with her partner Rich. Kaye had a zest for life. Her ideal day involved sleeping in; playing mixed doubles with Rich; grabbing brunch/coffee; an early afternoon work-out class at the "Y"; reading and listening to instrumental music; marveling at the spiritual visits from humming birds, monarch butterflies and deer outside her home; happy houring on the deck with Rich and joining him for a concert at the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts near their home in Monument, CO. Kaye's light will keep shining as her defining qualities of caring, optimism, perseverance, hard
work and gratitude leave a lasting legacy on family and friends who were open to her teachings. Kaye was preceded in death by her daughter Shelley Simonton and parents Julia and James Wynn. She is survived by her beloved husband Rich Schlueter; son Mike Simonton (Natania) and grandsons Jack and Max; step-daughters Deb Bush (Jerry) and Dana Slimko (Mark), grandchildren Zach, Kylie, Nicole, Emily, and Christopher; her sister Barbara Geiser, niece Lynn Soots and nephews Richard and Mark Geiser. A special thank you from Kaye and her family for the loving care of Abode Hospice. In lieu of flowers a donation to local hospice or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital would honor Kaye's wishes.
A memorial service will be held near Monument in the fall 2023.