Katherine Silkett, 91

After 91 plus years of a long and full life marked by hardships and tragedies but redeemed by bigger amounts of joys and wonders, Katherine “Kay” Silkett passed away peacefully on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012.

Born to new Dutch immigrants, John and Johanna Tuninga on March 1, 1921, in Chicago, she grew up in Park Ridge, Ill.

At age 6, Kay and her infant sister, Joan, lost their mother.

Since single men in that era rarely raised little girls by themselves, their father was urged to place them in an orphanage but he refused.

He remarried Martha Westphal Tuninga who the girls loved and called their “German mother.”

When Kay was 11, tragedy struck again when Martha died in childbirth.

Not one to give up, John again married when Kay was 13. This was their “Irish mother” Elizabeth Ann Roach.

Life became settled and Kay graduated from Main Township High School in 1939 and from St. Elizabeth’s School of Nursing with her RN degree in 1942.

The lure of adventure hit in 1943 when she came to California to join friends from nurses training. It was in Los Angeles that she met and married Frank A. DeLano, the father of her two children, Joan DeLano Conahey and Frank A. DeLano Jr. They settled in Southern California until Frank Sr. died in 1970 as the result of an automobile accident.

Shortly thereafter she met and married the love of her life, Carl L. Silkett who brought three sons to the union.

Carl retired from the state of California and he and Kay moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1986 where they built their dream house. They traveled the world.

Sadly, Carl began the slow and awful decline of Alzheimer disease.

Kay kept him at home until his death in May, 1998. Kay also remained in their home until her passing.

Kay is predeceased by her parents, both husbands and her sister, Joan Eberle.

She will be lovingly remembered by her daughter, Joan Conahey of Camarillo, Calif.; her son, Frank DeLano Jr., of San Diego; step-son, Carl Silkett (Cathy) of Cleveland, Tenn.; step-son, Bill Silkett (Cindy) of Woodbury, Minn.; step-son, Joel Silkett (Michelle) of Columbia Falls, Mont.

Also remembering this feisty, beautiful woman are grandchildren, David (Danielle) and Kateri Conahey, Emily (John) Briley and Brian Silkett, and William, Adrianna and Cole Silkett and great grandsons, Aiden and Carson Conahey and Knox Briley. Also surviving her is her half-sister, three nieces and a cousin, Mrs. Wilhemina Vander Wateren of the Netherlands.

Besides her family and her beloved Carl, Kay’s passions included vocal music and singing with the 3Cs women’s choral group, travel, tending and arranging her flowers, sweets and winter.

She had a varied work career which she loved, nursing, especially surgical and labor and delivery in hospitals. She worked in many doctors’ offices as well. She also volunteered at her children’s schools, at church and with the Boy and Girl Scouts and 4-H clubs.

During the last years of Kay’s life, very poor health limited her energy and mobility making her unable to engage in many activities she so enjoyed. But she ended her journey here laughing with her daughter and a beloved neighbor. She will be deeply missed by many.

The funeral service will be 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, where she was a member.

Internment will be private in Park Ridge, Ill., where she will be placed between her first two mothers. Yates Funeral Home, Coeur d’Alene, is in care of the arrangements. You may visit Kay’s online memorial and sign her guestbook at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com.