Obituary: Raley, Mary Katherine “Kay”
Age 81
Mary Katherine Raley, more commonly known as Kay, was born in Chicago on May 15, 1933.
At 18 she entered the Benedictine community then located in Nauvoo, Illinois, to begin a long commitment to prayer, learning and teaching.
She earned a BA degree from Quincy College and, much later, an MA from Whitworth.
She left the monastery in the late 60’s, married Adam in 1969, and moved to Spokane in late 1970.
She and Adam adopted their two beloved daughters, Aimee and Katie, in 1971 and 1972.
When the girls were young, Kay worked first as a teacher, then a principal and then an assistant superintendent until she left this last position to be home with the two girls.
Kay returned to her professional calling when the girls were in high school by taking up a variety of leadership challenges, including a directorship at the Newman Center at EWU which she found most fun and rewarding, until 1993 when she left her work to lead a full and satisfying retirement.
Kay is survived by her husband Adam, her two daughters, Aimee and Katie, and Katie’s two children, Devin and Jadyn, along with a crowd of friends, colleagues, students, parishioners and fellow sufferers of the maladies of age, dementia and cancer, that marked her later years.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Aloysius Church on Saturday, January 24th, at 2:00 pm followed by a reception at Cataldo Hall.
There will be a vigil on Friday night.
Call 509-456-7456 for more information about the vigil.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Kay’s name to the Women’s Drop In Center, Catholic Charities, Hospice of Spokane, the Salvation Army, 2nd Harvest, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, L’Arche of Spokane and Christ Clinic, or your choice.
She died anointed in the peace of the Lord.
Arrangements have been entrusted to: