Kathleen "Kay" Booth

Kathleen Marie “Kay” (nee Fleming) Booth died on Saturday, February 20, 2021, at St. Mary Medical Center.  She was 90.

Born in Morgantown, West Virginia on April 25, 1930, she was one of seven children to Gaylord Ozier Fleming and Hazel Anna Lee (nee Nestor) Fleming and sister to the late Kenneth Rogers, Doris Viviano, Gaylord Lee Fleming and Charles Merle Fleming. 

Kathleen grew up in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, on a small farm that her family sharecropped.  A poor but proud country girl, she worked very hard helping her father with everything from planting and harvesting crops to raising live stock to mining and hauling coal. In 1948, she graduated from Elizabeth Forward High School and started work at the US Steel Irvin Plant as a “tin flipper”. 

Kathleen was predeceased by her husband of 67 years, Louis Alfred “Al” Booth.  They were married in 1950 and moved to Fairless Hills in 1952 after Al transferred from US Steel’s Irvin Plant to their new Fairless Plant. They bought a house in Fairless Hills and raised their four children as part of a very new and young US Steel community. 

Kathleen was the money manager and worked a variety of jobs to supplement the family’s income.  For years, Kathleen took in ironings from a select group of customers and would spend hours making sure each starched ruffle, pleat, collar, cuff and placket was perfectly pressed.  She loved to plan family vacations to the Poconos, first renting a cabin, then camping and finally purchasing a cabin on Lake Wallenpaupak.  Kay and Al loved spending time in the Poconos, ice fishing in the winter and swimming, boating and water skiing in summers.  Camp fires were always a well-attended and well-loved night time ritual.  After Al retired from US Steel, they purchased a home in Tom Bean, Texas and began spending their winters there.

Kathleen taught her family the importance of family vacations and family dinners.  She instilled a great love of the outdoors in all of her children through camping, family cookouts and just making them play outside every day. Everything was better when it was done outdoors. 

Kathleen loved to bake and made the absolute best apple pies, dumplings and strawberry shortcakes.  She had a great sense of humor and was quick with a joke or rhyme that would make you blush.  She loved going to flea markets and buying and selling antiques and linens.  She had a strong sense of value and always preferred doing things the old-fashioned way with old-fashioned equipment. She was a force.

Kathleen made friends everywhere she went and was well loved by all who knew her. She always found ways to help others when they needed it and at the end of her life, she appreciated the help she received from others when she needed it.

Kathleen is survived by her four children, Kathy Washburn (Richard), Kim Booth (Leigh), Dale Booth (Linda) and Judy Price, seven grandchildren, Laura Washburn, Ian Booth (Julie), Mackenzie Booth, Bradley Booth (Alex), Kelsey Dell (Nick), Candice Badders (Paul), Kristie Chrisinske (Eric), two step-grandsons, Richard H. Washburn (Carolyn) and James H. B. Washburn (Tannwen Mount), eight great grandchildren, Colby, Rory and Aubrey Booth and Cate, Sara, Becket, Clayton and Hadley Washburn, her brother, Howard Vernon Fleming, her beloved sister and dearest friend in all the world, Mary Andrews, numerous nieces and nephews and her favorite caregiver and honorary daughter, Connie Sherwood.

A gathering to celebrate Kay’s life will be held at a later date. Burial at the Washington Crossing National Cemetery will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you perform a random act of kindness in her memory and say a prayer for all of the families that have lost a loved one to Covid-19.  She would love that.