Katherine Eleanor Stevens

Katherine Eleanor (Kucera) Stevens, 94, died on October 10, 2017. She was born January 1, 1923 in Pasadena, California. She was the second child of Joseph and Gladys (Seely) Kucera. Katherine attended Pasadena City College, studying art, drafting, and dress designing. She was employed at Hughes Aircraft in drafting. Katherine was a “Rosie the Riveter” on the P-38 Lightning aircraft assembly line during WWII. Katherine met Kenneth Stevens through a friend when he was on leave from the Army Air Corp. The couple married on September 4, 1943 in Pasadena, spending almost 53 years together, residing primarily in Duarte. To this union were born four children; Shirley (Sherry) Katherine, Geoffrey Keith, Kennette Lynn, and Brian Kent. Katherine attended the United Methodist Church in Duarte and was involved in many community events. She designed and sewed clothes for her family, made decorative quilts, and created home furnishings. She loved to cook and bake. Using these skills, she designed and decorated cakes for family and friends. However, her grandchildren enjoyed the demonstration of her most basic culinary skills including sourdough toast, French vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches cut up on top, and the English muffins that can never be made the same as Grandma made them. Katherine also enjoyed sketching, painting, sculpture, and needlework. She combined all of these talents to make porcelain dolls—from sculpting their faces out of greenware to clothing the dolls in unique hand-made outfits. In the nursing home, she made masterpieces from pill cups. Her favorite motif was butterflies—preferably turquoise. She was known as ""Flutterbys by Kathy"" by the other nursing home residents, or simply ""the butterfly lady"". In California, Katherine enjoyed a year-round garden filled with flowers, trees, and Meyer lemons. She received beautification awards from the city of Duarte for her yard. Katherine enjoyed the companionship of numerous dogs including Buttons, Jet, Heidi, and Luv. In July 2008, Katherine moved to Colorado to an assisted-living facility to be closer to family. Katherine was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; brother Howard Kucera; sisters-in-law Emily Kucera and Lucy Kucera; and son-in-law Dale Lehman. Surviving family includes her brothers Rowland (Anne) Kucera and Dennis (Edith) Kucera; daughters Sherry Lehman and Kennette (Lyle) Barr; sons Geoff (Elaine) Stevens and Brian (Julie) Stevens; grandsons Kenneth/Kent (Cindy Musil) Lehman, Kevin (Michele) Lehman, Bruce Browning, Geoff (Ashley) Stevens, Jr., and Scott Stevens; granddaughters Anjanette (Lyle) Phetteplace, Sherry Lynn (Joe) Zorack; and numerous great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. A Visitation will be held on Sunday, October 15, 2017, from 10 AM- 12 Noon. Please share your condolences with her family by signing the guestbook below.