Kathryn Ann (Blake) DENNEY

DENNEY, BLAKE, PRITCHARD, PUMP, DUNN, HERRON, EVANS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 3/14/2009 at 00:18:05

CLEAR LAKE -Kathryn Ann Denney, who balanced a life of community and church service in addition to caring for her family, died Saturday evening (March 7, 2009) at her home in Clear Lake. She was 94. A funeral mass will be conducted 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 12, at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 1001 Ninth Avenue S., Clear Lake, with Monsignor Joseph Slepicka serving as celebrant. Interment will be at Memorial Park Cemetery, Highway 122 W., Mason City. Visitation will be conducted from 4 to 7 p.m. today, Wednesday, March 11, at Ward-Van Slyke Funeral Home, 101 N. Fourth St. in Clear Lake. A Rosary service will be held at 6:30 p.m. A scriptural wake service will be held at 7 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to Hospice of North Iowa.

Born Kathyrn Ann Blake, Nov. 20, 1914, in Ackley. Mrs. Denney was a 1933 graduate of Belmond High School where she excelled in the fine arts before beginning a career in education. She attended the former Iowa State Teacher's College (now the University of Northern Iowa), graduating in 1935. During her college years, Mrs. Denney continued her love of music and singing. She spent her summers in training at Drake University. She began an elementary teaching career in Belmond in 1935 and was a full-time instructor through 1949 in Fort Dodge. She married Robert Denney, formerly of Garner, in October 1950. The family lived in Garner, moving to Clear Lake in 1956. Mrs. Denney was a longtime member of the Beta Sigma Phi sorority and continued her membership in Clear Lake. During her career, she served many roles within the sorority that included president and general chair of Belmond's sorority city council. In 1969, Mrs. Denney became president of the Clear Lake Women's Club, Clear Lake Progress Club, and also was a president of the Progress Club. She was a singer in The Key Notes, a popular Clear Lake women's musical group. and was former county chairman of the International Federation of Women's Clubs. As a parishioner of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Clear Lake, Mrs. Denney was an active member of the church choir for more than two decades. During that time, Mrs. Denney also assisted in youth education classes and volunteered for a variety of parish functions. She was a member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas and a charter member of the St. Patrick's Prayer Ministry. Mrs. Denney is best remembered by friends and family for a life of giving back to others - to her family, friends and to strangers in need. Mrs. Denney was one of Clear Lake's unofficial goodwill ambassadors, welcoming new members to her neighborhood as well as the community.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Robert, a former Clear Lake businessman, city councilman and president of the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, who passed away in 1990; her father, Benjamin Blake, her mother, Julia; an infant brother, Richard; and a sister, Mary Pritchard. Mrs. Denney is survived by her three children, a son, Robert, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a son, Thomas, of Clear Lake, a daughter, Anne, of Lexington, Ky.; a grandson, Barry Pump, of Seattle, Wash.; and four nieces, Margaret Dunn of Danville, Ohio, Pat Herron of London, England, Kathy Evans of Berkeley, Calif., and Marian Pritchard of Laguna Beach, Calif. Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel.

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa
March 11, 2009