It is with great physical angst to share that my incredible, and deeply loved, wife of 44 extraordinary years, Katherine A. (Newbury) Collins, has embarked on her spiritual journey, having been granted God’s greatest gift of Eternal Life. She lost her valiant three-year battle with liver cancer. She never gave up trying to get listed for a liver transplant, meeting each delaying challenge with more determined fervor than the last declaring to the doctor even in her final days that she is a fighter.

She is survived by her mother Emily Newbury, me, Jim Collins and our two incredible daughters Jaclyn Yarbrough and Erin Robertson with their spouses Brandon Yarbrough and James Robertson including grandchildren Riley and Rowan Robertson, and Rhys and Harper Yarbrough, niece Megan Lenard, grandniece Adeline Lenard, and grandnephew Adney Veech.

She was born and reared in the former Panama Canal Zone where she graduated from Balboa High School. She was blessed with a bright smile, quick wit, natural beauty, tender heart for children, love for animals and natural sports prowess across many sports including softball and racquetball. She possessed exceptional volleyball skills allowing her to play with the Panama National Volleyball team.

She shared her competitiveness with her horse Diablo (Yes, Devil). They mirrored the same spirit and loved competition. He never liked another horse to get in front of him. The wind in their hair and the challengers behind them, she was hunched over his withers as he galloped to win as win he must. And she has the awards to show their accomplishments. 

Initially pursuing a career in juvenile corrections, my asking her to marry me carried her overseas with my military career to West Germany where she started working with children in Department of Defense Dependent Schools(DODDS). We returned to the U.S. so she could pursue a career in elementary education. While working full time, she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in education. She continued from there to voluntarily achieve the prestigious National Board Certification, an advanced professional certification for teachers in the United States, demonstrating their mastery of teaching standards. And because she knew these kids needed help, she did all this while working in Title I schools her entire 25-year career.

As an elementary educator she was kind but firm, understanding but steadfast in her goal to teach skills and responsibility, provide guidance, listen to them one and all. She taught them how to learn as well as work hard to achieve their goals which she mentored and molded in each and every child. There is no greater reward than a former student taking the time to come back and thank her, which happened several times, for what they have achieved using her guidance. She believed in each of them and she interacted with all her proteges with grace and love.

Her most incredible contribution to this world was her love for her family. A doting daughter, wife, mother, aunt, nanna, and bonus nanna, her family was her greatest treasure, and she made sure everyone knew it. She encouraged us to be our best but comforted us when we weren’t. Any accomplishment, big or small, was celebrated with an abundance of pride. She showed us what it was to be loved unconditionally, and how to love ourselves the same.

She was exceptionally passionate about her family; a mother who celebrated the lives she had birthed in our two daughters. She used her faith, her aura and unbridled love for our two children with which she could impart her sense of right, love of life and laugh having fun living life to its fullest.

I am honored, humbled and exhilarated to have had the true joy of sharing our lives and love together as her husband. I loved her from a picture before I met her.

And that’s another, even better, story.

Our family is well aware that if I had passed first, and if reincarnation is a thing, that I truly wanted to come back as Kathy’s dog!

In lieu of flowers, we request that donations be made to The Ark Inc., a no-kill animal shelter in honor of the furry friends who brought her so much joy. Please visit arkinc.org where you can choose a direct donation, purchasing items from the Amazon wish list for their use, or even volunteering your time.

Via con Dios mi Amor. Nosotras te amamos! Te Amo!!

Go with God my Love. We Love You! I Love You!!

To the moon and back

To the moon and beyond

Most… times infinity

To the beach and back