In Memory

Kathryn Naylor

Kathryn Naylor

Kathryn Naylor was born in Boulder City, Nevada on May 17, 1947.  Her parents, Charles and Ruth Naylor, had moved there from West Springfield, Massachusetts in 1946 after Charles was discharged from the Army.

The family moved in 1948 to Henderson, Nevada and in 1950 to Las Vegas.  Kathryn went to Crestwood Elementary School, John C. Fremont Junior High School, and Las Vegas High School. While at LVHS she was a 3-year member of The Honor Club; a member of The Rhythmettes - renowned precision drill team; Editor of The Desert Breeze, the student body newspaper; elected Most Intelligent in 1964-65 school year; and several other accomplishments and distinctions.

After graduating from LVHS in 1965, Kathryn went to University of the Pacific and then transferred to University of Colorado (Boulder), where she received a bachelors degree.

She lived in a variety of locations over the years:  New York City, where she drove a taxi for five years, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, where she dealt blackjack, and then back to San Francisco for an extended period.   She loved the fog and walking all over the City by the Bay.   There she pursued her love for writing poetry and composing lyrics and music.  Kathryn never married.

After a health scare in 2012, she moved to Sacramento to be near her brother Robert.  Beginning in 2015 she battled a series of illnesses, ultimately checking into a Roseville nursing home in 2016.  She passed away on January 9, 2019, from complications from pneumonia.

She is survived by her brother, Robert and by the families of Robert and her brothers John and Thomas, who tragically predeceased her.  She is also survived by a book of poetry, 28 songs, and other writings, the best of which can be viewed on her website at HCliff.com.



 
go to bottom 
  Post Comment

01/16/19 01:40 PM #1    

Kay Kent (Furniss)

Since learning of her passing, I have been going through my photos I have of Kathryn when were in Brownies and Girl Scouts.  I posted a couple of those pictures on my page since this site went up but I had many more and decided to put all the photos I have of her in 'Photos and Memorabilia' - in The Community site under my name.  In HS, we did not do a lot of things together, she was a Rhythmette and I was in Pep Club!  It was fun cheering for her when she preformed.  We had a few classes together and she was always the smartest one in the room.  She was my best friend in scouting and we had a lot of adventures together.  People always say they will miss the person that has passed on, but I have missed Kathryn sincing losing contact with her forty plus years ago.  Until we meet again, Kathyrn, I will try and remember our promise - to always 'be prepared, and to help people at all times.'

I posted this on Kathryn's Obituary page in the RJ. 

Kathryn and I went to school together since Crestwood Elementary. We were Brownies and Girl Scouts together as her wonderful mother was our leader! Kathryn and I went to scout camp together for years and had a lot of fun times and experiences. We did all the merits badges together including learning to ride a horse! The picture I will always have of Kathryn in my mind is the day they were announcing the girls that were going to be the new Rhythmetts at LVHS. Kathryn sat in front of me in one of our classes and I remember her turning around and me wishing her GOOD LUCK and seeing her wonderful, smiling face full of anticipation and hope. She was selected and was a wonderful addition to the group. We wrote for a few years after our high school graduation and talked a few times on the phone. The last time we spoke she was living in NY.  I am sorry we lost contact. There were a couple of people I really wanted to see at our 50th LVHS class reunion and Kathryn was one of them. Until I get there, watch out for those screaming peacocks Kathryn! Thanks for the memories. With love, Kay

 


01/17/19 01:59 AM #2    

Craig Jolley

I thought I was a hotshot in math but only carried an 89 average the first 6 weeks in 8th grade. I discussed my status with Mrs. Thurman the week before grades came out.  She said she'd review my test scores, etc., but frankly it didn't look promising.  Mrs. Thurman didn't mind telling me Kathryn Naylor who she hinted was her best student would get an A.  Sure enough I got a B which woke me up, led me back to the straight and narrow, but also alerted me abut Kathryn.  She was in two or three classes with me at Vegas High, always the top student.  I'd thought of her as quiet, surprisingly humble considering her gifts, but we started to know each other a little better during Rhythmette Review rehearsals.  At first I wondered about her solo feature from an Andy Griffith country bumpkin routine.  Kathryn definitely enjoyed a good laugh, nothing held back.


01/19/19 06:18 PM #3    

Judy Dennison

I can’t remember how I first met Kathryn.  I didn’t attend Crestwood and don’t recall having her in any academic classes in high school, so maybe it was in PE class.  What I do remember is her easy wit and how nice she was.  I just looked through my junior year yearbook and found Kathryn’s entry, and it was a riff on something we always joked with each other about.  Something silly.  I never saw her after high school and never heard anything about her until I began helping Jill Barnard attempt to locate all of our “missing” classmates prior to our 50th reunion. The number one person that classmates contacted me with requests about was Kathryn.  I spent a lot of time—many hours and days—attempting to locate/communicate to or with her, and I finally did.  I was saddened during that search to see that her brother Tom had passed away, as had her Mother.   And I’m saddened now to know that her later years were difficult—-she truly was a lovely and special person. The photo of her below is from her college’s yearbook, 1966.  I found the yearbook text online.


01/20/19 02:33 AM #4    

Judy Dennison


01/21/19 08:35 AM #5    

Jill Barnard

  Robert Naylor sent these photos of Kathryn.


01/21/19 08:39 AM #6    

Jill Barnard


01/21/19 06:09 PM #7    

Judy Dennison

What great photos. 


01/22/19 09:04 AM #8    

Kay Kent (Furniss)

Thanks for these pictures! Mrs. Naylor too, just as I remember her!

01/22/19 04:08 PM #9    

Claire Flanders

My condolences to the famly of Kathryn.  Thank you, Mr Naylor for sharing family pictures.  

My friendship with Kathryn does not span decades and multiple schools.  However the one year that we spent on the staff of the Desert Breeze was a wonderful association.  Kathryn was the editor of the Breeze and I was the news editor.  Many late afternoons and evenings were spent proofreading galley sheets or writing last minute articles or re-editing headlines to meet deadlines.  Kathryn was detail oriented.  She and Miss Kincheloe held us to high standards.  It wasn't just do it well, it was do your best.  She wrote an editorial almost every issue of the Breeze.  Always well written and informative....stuff that would make me think....why didn't I think of that?  So it is not surprising that poetry and songwriting played a part in her adult years.  

It wasn't all work, however.  Kathryn had a dry sense of humor and a quick wit.  It was easy to laugh with her in a room.  I love the picture of her at her desk at the begininng of her In Memory page.  When we "took over" as the new staff of the Breeze our senior year, the office was in need of a paint job.  Kathryn went to Miss Kincheloe and asked about painting the office a brighter, lighter color.  After some discussion Miss Kincheloe agreed.  Especially when Kathryn told her the color she wanted.  Yellow...bright, sunshiney yellow.  The paint arrived and it actually was a very pleasant yellow.  It wasn't til just recently I found out that yellow was one of her favorite colors. It was going to brighten the office considerably.  

The staff went to work and the office was completed.  Kathryn and I were the only ones left when the last paint roller hit the wall.  Kathryn and I stood back and admired the finished project.  Looked good, we decided.  It was then, with a sparkle in her eye, Kathryn said that it wasn't quite colorful enough.  She opened this brown bag and took out 3 cans of spray paint and a couple of different sized tin cans.  i must have looked shocked, confused, something.  She laughed and told me that this was going to look great when "we" finished.  

She then explained that bubbles would give the office a little more color and a cheerful, playful look.  BUBBLES?  It would definitely complement the already delightful yellow.  Ok, after all, she was the editor.  She went to work shaking the cans of paint....light blue, dark blue, and red.  She took the first tin can, the largest one....quite possible a 1 pound coffee can?....placed it on the wall and sprayed a perfect blue circle on the yellow wall.  That was followed by a smaller circle, different color.  On it went, both of us spraying bubbles on the wall in random patterns.  We finished, stepped back and looked at our wonderful artistry.  PERFECT!  Truthfully, I don't remember what if anything was said by Miss Kinchloe, if she did I never heard of it.  It made me smile to see that picture, though.

Kathryn was the most intelligent person I knew in school.  She never patted herself on the back...EVER.  I don't think that she understood the scope of her intelligence.  I think that she would be in awe to realize the impact she had on her high school peers.  It pains me to hear of her health struggles in her later years.  She was a person that I thought about through the years.  

I listened to Kathryn's songs on her web page. I loved them all and marvelled at the various genres represented.  Just amazing. 

Rest in peace, Kahtryn and know the class of '65 will never forget you.

 


go to top 
  Post Comment

 




(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-55656465-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');