Catherine C Cosentino

Catherine "Kay" Cosentino was born September 9, 1917, in Tempe. She passed away peacefully of natural causes in Sedona, Arizona on April 2, 2010. Arizona was a far different world and had been a state only five years when Kay was born to David Carns and Bertha Roberts Carns who owned a farm close to the Salt River . There they cropped cotton, alfalfa, beans, okra, melons and vegetables and had a small dairy and many chickens. She swore off chickens for years when she left the farm for good but she never lost those farm-raised characteristics--that spirit of independence, hard work, belief in the value of education, doing the right thing even when it's hard and helping neighbors and her community. She spent treasured childhood summers at the Pleasant Valley (Young) ranch of her Aunt Beaulah and Uncle Jack MacKenzie. In those days the Mogollon Rim country was the back of beyond and getting there was a real trip. Once when she was out with her Uncle Jack checking on the cattle she asked him if he was worried about not being in church that Sunday. Sitting on a fallen log on the top of a hill he raised his arms to encompass the sky and rugged mountains and told her quietly in his Scots brogue, "I am." His reverence was a thing the young Catherine took to heart. Kay left the farm to go to college in her home town, Tempe. There she excelled in both her classes and in athletics. She was a member of National Honor Society and Kappa Kappa Alpha, many clubs and sports. As a senior, she and her best friend tied for the honor of receiving the college's highest athletic award and received an A-blanket which was one of her most valued possessions through her life. At Arizona Teachers College she met Frank Cosentino who was on a football scholarship. He was a gregarious man who loved to dance as much as she did. When she graduated she turned to classroom teaching. She resigned when she and Frank married and went to California where Frank trained men for the Navy during World War II and Kay worked as a secretary in a shipyard. They returned to Arizona in 1946 in time for the birth of their first child, Sandra. Frank and two of his brothers built the Phoenix home the family lived in for 46 years. When Kay was young she was offered a reporter post at the Kansas City Star, to work at chemistry or to follow her love of sports and the out of doors. She chose sports and for many years she was a PE teacher for the Phoenix Elementary District where she included folk dancing as part of the athletic curriculum. She was also active in community life including being a member of the Kachina Woman's Club for half a century. Their good works included raising money for the Phoenix paramedics. Kay was a skilled seamstress and could make anything and many a man at the VA hospital has been comforted by the lap quilts she made for them. Frank and Kay remained very active with alumni groups especially ASU football. They not only loved to dance, they loved to travel. After retirement Frank and Kay traveled much including overseas before his death in 1991 after which Kay moved into a condo. She was open to adventure from backcountry camping in Alaska to bus and train trips in Mexico with her children. There seemed to be nothing she didn't know about desert gardening. She loved the land and the out of doors and to grow things all her life, traits she passed along to her children. It seemed like she could make a tea rose grow in alkali and peppers grow in winter. Her thumb was that green. Catherine Cosentino was a spirited long-lived woman of strong values who always remained open to new things. She is survived by her three children, Sandra (Sedona, AZ) , Marsha (Winclock, WA), and Brian Cosentino (Olympia, WA), one grandchild and three great grandchildren all of whom with others who love her and will miss her, join in the hope that she is dancing in the great beyond. There will be no service. Donations to KAET public television in her honor are welcome. She was a big fan and even donated her car to them three years ago when she no longer drove.