Memorial service for Katherine Russell Kirby Hawthorne, 89, will be at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 8, at the Becker Funeral Home Memorial Chapel with the Rev. Kim Hames officiating. Burial will be in the Post Cemetery, Fort Sill, under direction of Becker Funeral Home & Cremation Service. Mrs. Hawthorne passed away on Friday, May 4, 2012 in a Lawton nursing home. Her husband of 60 years, retired COL Frank Hawthorne, preceded her in death in 2010. Katherine was born June 10, 1922 in Richmond, VA to Caroline Moss Russell Kirby and Thomas Eusebius Kirby, Sr. In 1928, the family moved to Raleigh, NC. She graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School and St. Mary's Episcopal College. In 1940, she was presented by the Terpsichorean Club of North Carolina to make her debut. She married CPT Frank Hawthorne of Mansfield, LA on February 18, 1950 at St. Mary's College Chapel. Among the couple's many assignments in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia, four were spent at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, home to the U.S. Army Field Artillery. Katherine worked in the government arena for a total of 22 years, including working on Capitol Hill for U.S. Congressman Harold D. Cooley of North Carolina and as a field representative for U.S. Congressman Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma. She was an active member of the Officer's Wives Club, the Women's Auxiliary of the Salvation Army, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the First Christian Church, the Lawton Country Club, her dance club and the Ft. Sill Artillery Hunt Club during the years that her daughters rode horses. Additionally, she enjoyed golf, duplicate bridge and mahjong. Katherine epitomized graciousness and hospitality, and she was the consummate hostess, always entertaining and doing for others. She was blessed with a devoted family and a wide circle of life-long friends from throughout the country. Even though an OK resident for most of her adult life, she never lost her soft southern accent or her devotion to her home state of VA. She is survived by two daughters, Lee Kirby Hawthorne Carrigan and her husband Frank of Arlington, VA and Katherine Cheshire Hawthorne Cotton and her husband John of Birmingham, AL; granddaughter Katherine Tone Carrigan of Arlington, VA and three grandsons, Lee Hawthorne Cotton of Birmingham, AL; Benjamin Austin Cotton and his wife Mary Catherine of Atlanta, GA; and, Dr. John Ryan Cotton and his wife Amy of Tampa, FL; and a brother, Thomas Eusebius Kirby, Jr. of Richmond, VA. Her sister, Virginia Lee Kirby Fulford of Birmingham, AL, preceded her in death. The family is extremely grateful for the loving care Katherine received from her primary companion and caregiver, Kelly Bailey and her husband Tobias, her beloved Lawton friends and her doctor, R. Brent Smith. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Daughters of the American Revolution, Lawton Chapter Scholarship Fund, 3333 NE 135th Street, Lawton, OK 73507-5816.