Kathy Cauble Thompson, a 53-year resident of Humboldt County, passed peacefully on Nov. 27 from an illness that was terminal but of slow progression until suddenly it wasn't. The morning before her death her buddy cattle dog, Sara, galloped in and jumped on the bed to Kathy's joy and amusement. Hugging, tail wagging and laughter ensued.

Kathy was always full of smiles and laughter. She will be greatly missed by her husband of 52 years Jack Thompson, her brother Keith Cauble and his wife Lois Masin, her aunt Ruth McCarthy and family, her uncle Fred Fisher's extended family and her many friends, including Sigrid Casey, Bibbi Lee and Charlie Simonds, Lois Mellert, Laurel North, Vinnie Peloso and Debbi Krukonis, Geronimo Tagatac, Mark and Nadine Lancaster, David and Audrey Selby and Joe and Morris Robinson and their families. In the final months of her life she received kind and gentle support from the staff and her friends at Adult Day Care at Mad River.

Kathy had a full life. She was very active in her reading group, Women Who Read. Members of the group became friends for life. She had also formed many friendships with work mates at the Humboldt County Welfare Office from which she retired. Her love of life included dogs, horses, cooking, eating in interesting restaurants, art museums, film, music and travel. She was also very adventurous and our last date in 1968 was for three weeks on horse back with one pack animal and a labrador into the Marble Mountain Wilderness area. During the trip we discovered that we were going to be a couple. Following our return, we decided to slip off to Reno and get married because Kathy was dreading her father's ideas for a big wedding. We were married by a justice of the peace in the county courthouse in Reno then slipped back to a large family party in Berkeley in the hope that our waywardness would be forgiven by her father. Her mother and my mother were very pleased and her father relented. We then decided that we needed a house on enough land so we could have our horses close by. Our marriage survived the years that it took us to build the house but then the travel bug bit Kathy pretty bad. We saw a lot of the United States, including multiple trips to Hawaii, often with her brother and his wife. On different self-guided trips we ended up traveling to Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, Andorra, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Costa Rica, usually by bus or car and often on bad roads, but the marvelous people we met, the art museums, the food, and the beautiful countryside made it all worth while.

Kathy was born in San Jose on Feb. 18, 1945, and grew up in the Portola Valley, daughter of a German born Stanford Hospital surgery nurse, Ilsa Cauble, and an Oklahoma born WWII veteran, western horseman and building contractor father, Dale Cauble. She graduated from San Jose State University, where we met with a background in English, creative writing and the humanities. She went on to a life long passion for the French language, literature, music, art, film and pilates with Janice at Health Sport. Kathy had a beautiful smile, a marvelous sense of humor, and a love of life. She will be greatly missed.

A celebration of her life and spreading of her ashes will happen in the Spring after the sun comes out and the rain ceases. Donations can be made to the Humboldt County Library, Doctors Without Borders or to the charity of your choice.