Katherine Sargent

     Katherine (Kathy) Sargent has passed away at the age of 82. Born Katherine Ann Doktor in Cushman in 1940, she was the daughter of Anna and Francis Doktor, and the second oldest of four children. Kathy attended the Amherst schools, graduating high school in 1958. An avid sportswoman, she excelled at athletics and played for the girls’ basketball team. After high school she earned a nursing degree from the Worcester College of Nursing in 1960. Kathy then continued her education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst studying art, painting, and illustration. Here she met her future husband, Theodore (Ted) Sargent. The couple married in 1966, settled in Leverett and raised two children.

     Kathy was a gifted artist, illustrating scientific papers and textbooks including “Genetics: Human Aspects,” by Arthur P. Mange and Elaine Johansen Mange, and her husband Ted’s 1976 book “Legion of Night: The Underwing Moths.”  Kathy also had a full career of nursing, working for many years at the University Health Services at UMass.

     Kathy’s real love was fabric art and quilting and she was a long-time member of the Pioneer Valley Embroiders Guild and the Hands Across the Valley Quilting Guild. Her elaborate quilts incorporated embroidery, painting, and beadwork, and depicted scenes of nature, wildlife, and landscapes of much-loved places from her travels. She had a strong interest in natural history and love of nature which was evident in all her work. From her home in Leverett she established ‘The Woodland Studio,’ and this is where many of her finest creations came to life. Her quilt “Shades of Night” includes the five species of underwing moths from Ted’s research and is now in the permanent collection of The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, joining Ted’s complete entomological research and collections.

     Kathy leaves her son, David, daughter Meryl, and four grandchildren, Elliot, Lydia, Ethan, and Theo. Kathy requested no funeral, however donations in her memory can be made to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell MA. (www.neqm.org).