Kathy Riddle, 69, passed away on October 27, 2018 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was born as Kathryn Lee Thomas, on December 28, 1948, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was the oldest daughter of Samuel Bernard Thomas and Eva "Bonnie" Ann Shannon. They moved soon thereafter to Shreveport, LA. Her siblings, Sammy, Stanley and Julie were born there. Her mother passed away with an aneurism, when age 41, and Kathy became the cook for the family. Her Dad's beloved aunt, Edie, taught her to cook and care of her infant sister, Julie. When Kathy was 14, her father married her step-mother, Alta French, now our dear Alta Nave. She already had three children, Debbie, Billy and Steve. They moved their blended family to Houston where Bernard worked in the Accounting at Exxon.

After high school, Kathy lived several places in Florida. She completed the third year of college.

She married and had four children, Jimmy, Thomas, Kim and Bonnie. She served as a Staff Sgt. in the Air Force, performing maintenance on some legendary military planes at Air Force bases in several states, including her favorite, Alaska. The children spent their early years in Florida. After a divorce, Kathy moved to Tulsa to attend an airplane mechanic school at Tulsa Tech, and joined Memorial Baptist Church, where she met Larry Riddle. They were married in that church July 15, 1989 and he adopted the four children.

Kathy worked for the City of Tulsa in various positions, until plans for her to quit work to home school could become a reality. Then she taught Christian homeschool at home and Algebra and Chemistry at a home schooler's coop in Tulsa. She was home schooling in November 1999 when she had her first heart attack. After fully recovering from that, she had some intensive training and became a cardiac monitoring technician at St. John's Hospital and later, St. Francis. For a while she worked as a night shift unit secretary but moved back to monitoring for the rest of her life. She wanted to never retire. She was always very good at her job, and trained many trainees along the way to do the same.

Larry and Kathy are known for their strong love for God. Kathy would never miss half a chance to share her faith. She was known for her kindness and compassion, her love for her family, friends and cats. She definitely loved her cats.

Did she tell you that she could only see out of one eye? And she didn't talk until she was 5 years old. Did she tell you she loved snow and clouds and the northern lights? Took piano lessons and learned to play? Once had a violin? Used to ride a motorcycle? How about this one, did you know that when she was younger she had 14 cats??? One was named Relativity! Can you hear it now, HERE Relativity, kitty, kitty??? She used to own a Corvette. Did you know she overhauled a car engine? Or did you know she loved flowers, especially roses? Made delicious chocolate or blueberry pancakes? Could be persuaded to make a healthy blackberry cobbler? And coffee, oh dear, coffee every morning was one of her life's essentials. Kathy Starbucks Riddle... She loved to cook hamburgers on the grill. Her own was always a cheeseburger. She loved parmesan cheese and not just a little, a truck load was a good start. She used to manage the water chemistry at a community swimming pool. The water was crystal clear. Did you know she is survived by four cats that saw her as their mother figure? Yes, she was really the cat lady... And her health and heart history would wow you for sure. If you gave her the time and listened closely, she would tell you about such things and enjoy your surprised reactions. Kathy was not just anybody. She had heart, soul and character. She wasn't just Larry's girl, she was God's girl through and through and felt very strongly about that.

She loved her husband and children. She would do just about anything for them. She loved her friends. There was never a friend like her anywhere. She loved her church and loved the people, even though she was not able to attend the last couple of months. She loved the people she worked with. She loved it when they would come and see her when she was a patient in the hospital. She loved making trips to Alaska to see family members there, back when she was able to do that.

She read her Bible and was especially fond of creation and revelation. She could discuss the Bible in detail for as long as anyone wanted to listen. She loved books and had a full bookcase in every room at home. She loved recorded Christian fiction stories and played them all the time in the car. She studied diseases and medicines on her own from a young age. She figured math problems in her head and remembered formulas for trig and algebra years after using them. She remembered chemical formulas and memorized every detail of the periodic table. She knew so much about heart rhythms, even those that were hard to recognize. She was very intelligent, very fun, and was a great companion. She loved to make up recipes. She called them her inventions, and some were great, especially her delicious enchada casserole. She could cook fried chicken or a Christmas turkey that would melt in your mouth.

She developed type 2 diabetes in the early 90's and heart problems in the late 90's. Both ran in her family. These slowed her down some but didn't get the best of her until last weekend. She understood both and was able to manage her own difficult blood sugar and very high blood pressure for about 25 years. She was always a little jittery at airports because she had so many stints she could set off airport scanner alarms, but somehow it always turned out fine.

She talked about heaven and how she had asked Jesus to come into her heart and He did. If you just met her, it might be the first thing you heard from her. Kathy wasn't perfect and none of us are, but she had her eyes on the right goal, a goal that was fully realized Saturday afternoon, when she stepped into Heaven just as Jesus promised those who have given their lives to Him. I'm sure she didn't know she would see Him that day, not even a minute before. All the evidence suggests she didn't know that was the day. As with Kathy, heaven waits for those who trust Him and it makes all the difference in their lives. Nothing else in this life comes close to that in importance.

There will never be another just like her. Her life reminds us of Jesus in many ways, especially by putting others first, being humble and loving people.

Her life story on earth came to a close Saturday afternoon, October 27, 2018, when she went home to be with Jesus, on the occasion of a final, massive heart attack. Her heart could not be restarted, despite the best efforts of her husband, early responders, EMSA and the St. Francis ER team, who all did everything they possibly could to try to save her.

If she were here today she would encourage all of us to live our lives as close as possible to Jesus and rely on Him to help us do that. She was a believer in Jesus' return for his own and hoped she would live long enough to see that happen. For that reason we chose cemetery lots that face the eastern sky, where Jesus will appear someday to take us home. We don't just say we believe, we really do believe. We discussed and she stated that she believed this: Where we lack the strength, we can lean on His strength. Where we lack wisdom, we can rely on His wisdom. Where we can't see the path ahead, we can trust Him to lead us through. She said life is short and we should be getting ready for the day when He will bring us home to be with Him, in His own good time. She prayed for those she knew that were not saved, and those that need to return to God, who loved him in their childhood. Some of you right here have been in her prayers for a long time, because she loved you and because she knows what some of you are missing without Him.

We thank God for Kathy and also pray for all those she loved and prayed for. Losing her from this earth is a heartbreak that only God is able to heal. Let God help you through it, stay close to Him. If you're not close to Him, don't miss His blessings in your life. Ask for His forgiveness and get close to Him again, and He will see you through this life.

Today we join Larry, the four children, their spouses and ten grandchildren (and cats, we can't forget the cats) in saying "see you in the morning" to Kathy until we see her again some wonderful day in heaven. She is a darling lady and we will surely remember her kindly, always. This we know, she has made a positive difference in our lives many times over, and we will GREATLY miss her.

The Funeral Service is scheduled for 10 AM, Friday, November 2, 2018 at Moore's Southlawn Chapel with interment following in Memorial Park Cemetery.