Katherine Toews Leatherman

Katherine Wilhelmina Toews Leatherman was born January 19, 1943, to Peter and Hattie Peters Toews at North Star, Michigan. She passed away in the early morning hours December 31, 2023, at Oakwood Retirement Center, Brooksville, Mississippi, at the age of 80 years. Funeral services are planned for Friday, January 5, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. at  Delta Mennonite Church in Transylvania, LA .  Glenwood Funeral Home is in  charge of the services.

Kathy had fond memories of sharing a bedroom with her three older sisters, helping in the home, and playing with her younger brother, John. Although she hardly remembers her oldest brother, Ted, being at home, these last years they called each other every day.

She was baptized into the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, at Ithaca, Michigan, on February 5, 1956, by Minister Glenn Litwiller. Her faith and the church were dear to her until the end.

Kathy was seventeen when she married her sweetheart, Roger Leatherman. Roger and Kathy created a home where hospitality shone and children were welcome. Mom had a special heart for adopted and foster children. She felt especially blessed to have been given four children. She delighted in having an attractive home and was skilled in baking and sewing. She always enjoyed the youth, and later, family and friends crowding into their home for night lunch. We don't remember her ever complaining. She’d tell us, “The Bible says, Be content with whatever state you are in.”

Roger and Kathy spent two years of 1W service at Roseburg, Oregon. Later they moved from Michigan to Versailles, Missouri, because a dairy farm offered a place where they could work together as a family. Another move brought them to Lake Providence, Louisiana where they lived for forty-four years. In 1983 Mom started working in the Ol’ Dutch Bakery. She enjoyed the interaction with the people of the community. That job ended when grandchildren and an occupation change for dad (land leveling) gave Mom plenty to do. Mom was actively involved in all of Dad’s occupations: baling hay on the dairy farm, painting and hanging wallpaper when dad was a carpenter.  And when Dad and their sons became a crew of land levelers, she kept the books and helped the men move from job to job. She believed in prayer, often telling how her prayers were answered and the rain would go around the field so the job could be finished.

As the pain from the degenerative disc disease became more intense, Mom fought for relief. Minister Verle Johnson had a healing prayer over her and although her pain was not abated, she found courage in her Bible, highlighting many positive verses. Christmas Eve 2010, she wrote, “The pain was so severe, I longed so for heaven. In the morning the song  ‘There is Sweet Rest in Heaven’ came to me and was such a comfort.” Excessive pain caused her to miss each one of her three sister's funerals in Michigan which was truly devastating.

Looking back now we children see how she and dad became mighty warriors, skilled at managing and accepting the pain, never allowing self pity to dominate. Seven months ago dad left her side after sixty- two years. She fought valiantly on. She had a life worth living, a family she loved, and she wasn’t ready to lay her armor down, but God in His love gently carried her home.

While living at the Oakwood Retirement Center these past two years we see the value she placed on friendship. She gave herself to being a friend and we feel blessed by her many friends.

Those left to cherish her memory are the children: Cindy and Anthony Unruh, Okolona, Mississippi; Merlin and Melgra Leatherman, Mize, Mississippi; Rodney and Bonnie Leatherman, Transylvania, Louisiana; Patrick and Lori Leatherman, Transylvania, Louisiana; eighteen grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren. Three brothers: Ted Toews, Bowersville, Georgia; Robert and Betty Toews, Ithaca, Michigan; John and Thelma Toews, Bradley, Arkansas; and one brother-in-law Richard Trgina, one sister-in-law Elaine Leatherman. Louise Litwiller and Kimberly Morgan were two foster sisters of Dad’s who became like sisters.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Roger, her parents and her three sisters: Delores Bentley, Mary Trgina, and Rosalee Holdeman, one sister-in-law, Roberta Toews and one brother-in-law, Allen Leatherman.