Kathleen Mathews Wisdom

Kathleen Mathews Wisdom, best known as “Kit,” died recently in Nashville, Tennessee, after an illness. A native of New Orleans, she is preceded in death by her parents, Judge John Minor Wisdom and Bonnie Mathews Wisdom, and her brother John Minor Wisdom, Jr. She is survived by her sister, Penelope Wisdom Tose.

Kit was educated at Metairie Park Country Day School and the Louise S. McGehee School in New Orleans, the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, and Pine Manor College (now part of Boston College) in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Kit was an accomplished horsewoman and a prize-winning rider from her earliest years. As a six-year-old she was pictured in the newspaper over the caption “The Blue Ribbon for winning the pleasure horsemanship class in yesterday’s horse show at Audubon in presented to little Miss Kit Wisdom riding Wee Gee of the Audubon Stables.” An avid rider, Kit founded a regional pony club and went on to win numerous awards in horse shows and dressage events, Later in life she was especially interested in riding as a therapeutic exercise, especially for children. She is survived by her last dressage mount “Regence” from Brazil, currently stabled in Folsom. Throughout her entire life, Kit especially loved animals: cocker spaniels and Brittany spaniels in childhood and in later life Jack Russell Terriers. Her friend Karen Danna Perschall recalled seeing Kit in recent years with her animated Jack Russell in Audubon Park: “That dog certainly had her trained well,” Perschall laughed. Kit “was always happy,” recalled her friend Marcelle d’Aquin Saussy. Saussy, along with Judy Walshe Whann and the late Dolly Jordan, was a frequent lunch partner of Kit’s when she came home as an adult. “She would always want to go to Frankie & Johnnie’s, and she would go up to the oyster bar and say ‘I’m the one who comes all the way from Vermont for your oysters!” Saussy noted. Kit’s participation in Mardi Gras began when she was a train bearer to the Queen of Mystic as a 7 year-old. During her debut year she was Queen of Comus in 1960, and a court maid that year in the Krewe of Proteus. The Knights of Momus, the Krewe of Atlanteans and the Twelfth Night Revelers. Kit’s Comus gown was covered in iridescent sequins that gave it a pale pink sheen, and she was pleased that she managed to find a way to bring a different look to her role.

Besides horses and Carnival, Kit enjoyed politics. The New Orleans Item newspaper’s columnist Marilyn Barnett once noted: “Twelve-year-old Kit Wisdom has caught “Ike” fever from her father, John Minor Wisdom, and has plastered ‘I Like Ike’ stickers over her horse’s stall at the Audubon Stables. Her pal, Dolly Jordan, has done the same thing.” After reaching voting age, Kit was active in Republican Party politics, and was on the staff of the 1968 Republican Convention in Miami, Florida. She is mentioned in Timothy Crouse’s book about the Presidential race that year, “The Boys on the Bus.” Kit made it into print when she failed to retrieve from a BBC reporter an event schedule which included a “spontaneous balloon drop” set to happen at an exact time.

Kit was also a source for author Mel Steeley’s “The Gentleman from Georgia,” a biography of former Congressman Newt Gingrich. While Gingrich was in graduate school at Tulane University, Kit worked with him on Republican events, including an airport reception for a visiting dignitary, featuring the Eureka Brass Band. While still living in New Orleans, Kit was a founding member of Jeunesse d’Orléans, an organization of young adults that supported cultural events, including a charity ball at the New Orleans Museum of Art in July of 1965. When she moved to New York, she served on the staffs of Republican officials including U. S. Senator Jacob Javits, and Mayor John Lindsay. And, she put her horsemanship skills to good use as a volunteer with the New York Police Department Mounted Unit. Kit relocated from Manhattan to the small New England town of Shrewsbury, Vermont, where she had ample space for horses as well as dogs and cats. Politically, over the years, Kit shifted from her Republican allegiance, and, with her fellow Vermont voters, supported their governor, Bernie Sanders, as he moved to the national stage. Besides civic activity and working with animals, Kit also practiced Chi Gong, a system of meditation, breathing and movement similar to yoga; and the Alexander Technique, for movement and balance. And, although her adult years were spent away from her home city, Kit Wisdom remained a loyal New Orleanian throughout her life. A private burial will take place in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. To view and sign the guest book, please visit www.lakelawnmetairie.com