Kay Carter

(From Housh-Goodwin Funeral Home)

M. Katheryn Letsinger Carter died at her parent’s homestead in Sarcoxie on April 27, 2025. Kay was born on March 22, 1928, to the late William Roy Letsinger and Susan Hasselbring Letsinger at Van Nuys, CA where her father was employed as a carpenter at that time. She was the oldest of five siblings; Gladys who died in 2012, Frances who died in 2015 and Rae who died in 2018. Her youngest sibling, Joan, survives.

Kay graduated from Sarcoxie High School with the class of 1946. After graduation, she initially worked for late Dr. Kilbane in Sarcoxie but later moved to Springfield and worked for Toomes & Company. In 1950 she met Don Carter of Halltown, MO on a blind date and they were married in April 1951. Kay and Don had three children: Bruce born in 1954, Donna Kay born in 1955 and Shirley in 1957.

During Don’s life as a railroad telegrapher, they lived in various small Kansas and Arkansas towns. Don retired from the railroad in 1998, and they continued to live in Russellville, AR which was his last posting. In 2005 they moved to Republic, MO to be close to their respective families. When Don later became so ill that Kay was unable to care for him at home, she drove to Mt. Vernon’s Veterans Home every day to visit him for eight years until his passing in 2022.

Kay was a wonderful gardener and canned or froze all that she grew. When she and Don lived in Russellville, they loved to fish for crappie on Lake Dardanelle. She was an avid follower of the financial markets and became a very successful investor. She inherited her mother’s green thumb and grew most of her flowers from cuttings and seeds. Reading was also an inherited family passion and Kay thoroughly enjoyed her mysteries and westerns until the end of her life.

A private service will be held at Garoutte Cemetery in Republic where Katheryn will be interred next to Don, her husband of seventy-one years.

Arrangements are under the personal care and direction of Housh-Goodwin Funeral Home, Sarcoxie, MO