Kathlyn "Kay" Bymers Heaton died on Thursday, June 8, in Kendal at Ithaca, where she has lived since 1998. She was surrounded in spirit by a large and loving family, which includes a son, two daughters, five grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, a brother, nieces and nephews, numerous cousins, and many admiring friends. Kay was a generous hostess, a world traveler, a reader, a gardener, and a democrat, in both upper- and lower-case meanings of the word. She was widely admired by the staff and her neighbors at Kendal for her unfailing good nature and consideration of others.
"Kathy" Bymers was born in Turton, SD, on October 27, 1917, a community in which her grandfather had been a homesteader. In 1937, Kay left the Dakotas to join her older sister in Evanston, Illinois; in 1941, she married Don Heaton, also from the Dakotas. They lived an active and community-oriented life, mainly in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. They were the parents of four children, Connie Goddard of Tinton Falls, NJ; Jim Heaton of Kalamazoo, MI; Nancy Heaton of Longwood, FL; and Carl Heaton, who died in 1973.
In 1966, Kay was unexpectedly widowed; she soon found a job as a bookkeeper, then acquired a college degree in 1971. For a decade, she was an administrator at the Continental Bank Chicago. Her social and community life continued to be full, with theater, Cubs ballgames, and trips around the country. After retirement, she devoted herself to her grandchildren - providing them with abundant love, guidance, and several different kinds of ice cream.
After Kay moved to Kendal, she participated actively in life there and at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca. Until 2012 - when she was 95 - Kay lived independently in her Kendal cottage, tending her garden and serving signature waffles to friends and relatives. At 98, she finally moved to assisted living; she died, after suffering a broken hip in a fall, four months short of her 100th birthday. Her far-flung family will hold a memorial service for her sometime this summer. She is survived not only by her descendants, but by her brother Robert and his wife Lucy of Glenwood, Minnesota.
Contributions in Kay Heaton's honor can be sent to two organizations she long supported, the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood, or to other organizations that support sustainability and the out-of-doors.
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