Cathy (Donovan) Rhoads |
| Posted 2008-10-17 by Judy Wight Branson |
| Monday, October 13, 2008 Cathy Rhoads, 77, died at home peacefully on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2008. A resident of Prescott for 32 years, she and her husband, Mark C. Rhoads (Chuck), who passed away in 2002, loved their life here. Born in Denver, Colo., Cathy married Chuck, her first and only sweetheart on June 18, 1950. She accompanied him through his career as an army officer, raising their four children, Scott, Susan, Thomas and Elizabeth. As an early proponent of women's rights, Cathy was one of the first of those dynamic women who had the drive to return to school after years as a homemaker. She obtained her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Northern Colorado in 1970, at the age of 40. After retiring in Prescott, both Cathy and Chuck threw themselves wholeheartedly into the arts, she discovered her true medium, ceramics. For the rest of her life she was a perpetual student in ceramics as well as an ongoing assistant for the clay lab at Yavapai Community College. A passionate devotee of music, she also had a "voice" in the music department at the college for many years. Cathy is survived by two of her children, Susan Rhoads, MD and Thomas Rhoads; five grandchildren, Robin V. Rhoads, Charlie and Sam Rhoads, and Steven M. Romanek and Meghan Romanek; and three great grandchildren, Destiny, Ryan and James. Tom, her son believes that Cathy has left for that "great Clay Lab in the sky." Her daughter, Susan, ran the following pre-posthumous epitaph by her, which she approved with great glee: Yon Cathy is ceramics besotted, Clay, from slip, stab to wheel, is allotted. When its finished by glazing, She says, fondly gazing, "When I'm planted? Just have me potted!" Joy Sewell, her longtime friend, adds a meaningful quote also appreciated by Cathy, from The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser: "Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please." Cathy's death and that of her youngest daughter, Beth, were due to cancers caused by the radioactive fallout from the aboveground nuclear testing in Nevada in 1962, while the family was stationed at Ft. Douglas, Utah. In lieu of flowers, please make any donation to help the many unacknowledged victims still alive to obtain the screening needed to enable earlier detection and the chance of more successful treatment. Donations may be made to Downwinders, 254 West 500 North, Malad City, ID 83252. Alternatively, donations may be made to the Yavapai College Foundation, to the benefit of the Ceramics Dept. on behalf of Cathy Rhoads, 1100 E. Sheldon, Prescott, AZ 86301 Information provided by survivors. |
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