Katherine Elizabeth Smith (Morris)

In 1998, Katherine began a fulfilling career with the SPJST, where she served as an assistant to the Editor and Director of Communications. In this role, she poured her heart and soul into editing and proof-reading the organization’s newspaper, the Věstník, ensuring that member’s stories and messages were conveyed with the utmost care and precision.

Katherine was preceded in death by her parents, Nick A. Morris and Dorothy Marcella (née Liška) Morris; paternal grandparents, Jan Štěpán Morys & Ana Eliška (née Mareš) Morys; and maternal grandparents, Stanley Liška & Cecilie (née Nekuža) Liška.

Katherine is survived by her long-time partner, Wayne Orange of Little River-Academy; children, Joshua Smith of Temple; Jason Smith (Cassandra) of Austin; and Victoria Chips (Matthew) of Georgetown.

Brothers, Nicholas Morris (Natalie) of Rock Hill, South Carolina; Stephen Morris (Suzan) of Austin; Josef Morris (Pam) of Temple, Michael Morris (Cynthia) of Temple…along with many nieces and nephews.

Death is not the final word…Jesus is.

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Jason - Our mom had a love for music. However, the music we usually heard around the house was classical, polka, and country. She had such a good ear for the classics that she often won the KTEM radio station's call-in contest. The contest would consist of them playing a 3 second snippet of a song and the listener would have to identify it on air. The rumor is that the radio station had to institute the rule of not being able to win for at least 30 days between prizes because she was so good at it.

Later in life, we learned of her love for Led Zeppelin, and other rock, new and old. Her and I listened and discussed each Audioslave album. I even had the pleasure of driving her and her brother, Joe, down to, and picking up from, Stubb's Backyard in Austin, TX to see Robert Plant in concert.

Unfortunately, she was unable to attend the concert of one of her favorite bands, The Police. Her and her brother, Michael, were traveling to Dallas for one of the bands stops when she hit a patch of water and hydroplaned off the road. Luckily, they were both fine, but they were unable to make the concert. However, because of this incident, they were able to procure tickets to the next stop, in San Antonio. Unfortunately, her schedule did not allow her to attend that concert, and she surprised me with the ticket as a gift. Michael and I had an amazing time, and I shared many pictures and videos with her.