Kathleen Ellen Willard, 85, of Roeland Park, KS, passed away on Monday, January 12th, 2026, at The Village at Mission in Prairie Village, KS.
A funeral mass will be celebrated at 10:50 a.m. on Monday, January 26, at St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic Church, 5035 Rainbow Blvd., Westwood, Kansas, with Fr. Jonathan Heinricy presiding. Visitation will be at the church at 9:30 a.m., followed by Rosary at 10:30 a.m. Burial procession to Gate of Heaven cemetery will follow the funeral mass. Porter Funeral Home of Lenexa is assisting.
Kathleen was born May 25th, 1940, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the youngest child of Daniel Noel and Mary Colette (Hohenhorst) McCarthy. She had an older sister, Jane, and an older brother, Thomas.
She grew up mostly in Clinton, Iowa, spending her early years on Beaver Island in the Mississippi river by Clinton. She attended St. Mary's School and Mount St. Clare Academy high school in Clinton, graduating in 1958 as valedictorian.
In 1962, she had a blind date with Digby Willard, a US Marine visiting family in Clinton while on leave. Soon after the date, Digby returned to his duty station in San Diego, but courted Kathleen by mail. They were married on August 20, 1963, in Clinton.
She left Clinton to join Digby in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was then attending the University of Utah through the US Navy's NESEP program. Their son Digby Willard, Jr., was born in November, 1964 in Salt Lake City.
For the next several years, Kathleen and her family moved frequently the way military families do, living in San Diego; Monterey, California; North Carolina; the suburbs of Washington, DC: and Beirut, Lebanon, to name a few. In Beirut, they lived across the street from the Mediterranean Sea and near a local landmark known as "The Old Mosque". She was in Beirut when civil war broke out in 1975, and left shortly afterward with her son Digby Jr.
In 1984, she and Digby Sr. moved to Roeland Park, Kansas, where she lived until her death.
Kathleen worked a wide variety of jobs as a temporary and part-time bookkeeper for many years. She was a skilled singer who loved singing in choirs. She enjoyed classical music and loved to read, especially if there was a cat sitting on her lap.
Her church life was rewarding. She was a devout daily communicant at St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic Church. Kathleen was an active member of the church parish, sewing new curtains for the new community meeting house, assisting with cleaning the church, and hosting after-service coffee and donuts one Sunday a month for several years.
Kathleen is survived by her husband of 62 years, Digby Willard of Roeland Park; her son, Digby Willard, Jr. of Minneapolis, MN; her granddaughter Kathleen T. Willard, of Minneapolis, MN; her nephews, Chris McCarthy of Ft. Collins, CO and Brian McCarthy of Woodward, IA; her niece, Ann McCarthy Kohl of Clinton, IA; and her cousins Barbara Scholl, Robert Isenhart, Susan Hoffman, Charles Isenhart of Dubuque, IA, Michael Isenhart of Cedaredge, CO, Thomas Isenhart of Ames, IA, Patricia Stolley of Lincoln, NE, Steven Hohenhorst of Nampa, ID, and Larry Hohenhorst of Columbia, IL; and her sisters in law Charlotte Schmidtke of Sheperd, MI, Barbara Sampietro of Nacogdoches, TX, and Becky Willard of Austin, TX.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her older brother Thomas McCarthy, and his wife Patricia, and by her cousins Andy Isenhart and Daniel Hohenhorst. She was followed on January 20th, 2026, by her older sister, Sr. Jane McCarthy OSF.
Her family wishes to thank the staffs at KU Hospital and at the Village at Mission, neighbors Joe and Anne Jezak and April and Aaron Carriker, fellow parishioners Teressa Fogarty, Therese Augustine, and Daryn Price, friend Claudia Kauzlarich, Fr. Jonathan Heinricy, and the parish of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic Church for their support, compassion, and generosity in the last days of her life and afterward.
In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to the Families in Need fund of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic Church.