November 29, 1930 - December 11, 2018
Katharine Phyllis "Kathy" Crissey Obituary
Age 29 + 59
Katharine Phyllis Crissey passed away peacefully on December 11, 2018. Kathy was born in Fairfield, Iowa on November 29, 1930 to Lee and Katharine Breece. It should be duly noted that she celebrated her 29th birthday for 59 years.
Kathy married Second Lieutenant Gene E. Crissey in 1953, becoming a military wife who managed raising, moving and settling her family on a journey that went from Missouri, to Washington, to Missouri, to California, to Maine, to North Carolina, and to Guam before settling in Spokane in 1978.
To say that Kathy was fiercely independent and had a wicked sharp wit, is a good conversation starter. A natural creative talent, Kathy was skilled in sewing, painting, cooking, sculpture and graphic arts. She obtained her Bachelor?s degree in fine arts and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Guam while she and Gene were stationed there in the mid 1970s. As a student, Kathy spent a summer on an island off the coast of Japan teaching English as a second language. A fan of Kurt Vonnegut, she signed a number of her paintings as Montana Wildfire (not, Wildhack). It was only natural that when her first grandchildren were born, she became known to family as Grantana (Wildfire), never grandma.
Kathy was on Guam when the Vietnam war ended and was instrumental in helping refugee families as they landed and stayed on Guam before traveling to mainland USA. For this work she received special commendations and meritorious achievement recognition from the Red Cross, the Air Force and the Interagency Task Force for Indochina Refugees for her ?valued service to the humanitarian effort of resettling the refugees from Indochina.?
When Kathy and Gene moved to Spokane in 1978, she started looking for work and landed an internship at Spokane Falls Community College. She introduced MacIntosh computer graphics in the early 1980s and worked her way up to leading the graphics department at SFCC. Kathy retired from SFCC in 2006, after 25 years at the college and at age 29 (+ 46).
To friends and family Kathy will be remembered for many things, including her generosity and hospitality and for her red 1963 MGB, John Lennon glasses, five spices chicken & rice, Kamado pot (egg BBQ) smoke out, feeding 20 people in a dining room for 8, and her love of travel to China, Japan, Thailand and Europe.
Kathy is survived by her husband Lt. Col. Gene E. Crissey and three children Jeanne C. Selvaggio (Leonard), Jim (Mary Grace), John (Suzanne); grandchildren Allegra and Armand Selvaggio, Jacqui Crissey and Jonathan Crissey, and Joseph, Matthew and Noah Crissey; and six great grandsons, Eoin, Jack, Leonard, August, Wyatt and Otis. She is also survived by her siblings James Breece (Janie), Janet Federico (Louis) and Mairi Danielle Scott (Michael).
The family is grateful for the loving care and guidance Kathy received from the Deaconess Hospital11 tower nursing staff and for the physical therapy folks at The Gardens in the Spokane Valley. The family wishes to thank the wonderful care teams at Brookdale Memory Care Unit on the south hill and the skilled nursing unit at Riverview Senior Living.
A celebration of life is scheduled for July 13, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. in the chapel at Heritage Funeral Home, 508 N. Government Way.
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