Katherine Augusta Axilrod

Katherine "Kathy" Axilrod passed away Dec. 17, 2024, at her apartment in Essex. Kathy was 97 years old and was active until very near the end when she simply succumbed to the passage of time two years after the passing of Stephen Axilrod, her husband of 72 years.

She is survived by her three children, Peter Axilrod, Emily Hildner and Richard Axilrod; as well as six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

First and foremost, Kathy was the force that held her extended family together. This included nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, in-laws, cousins of all degrees and many who were effectively family though not related in any legal way. She sought everyone out and her greatest joy was just to sit and chat individually with as many as she could. She was the family chronicler as well, having just this year completed and published, primarily at the request of her grandsons, Immigrant Odyssey, a family history which took her immigrant paternal and maternal grandparents as a starting point.

Kathy was also an admired artist whose paintings are in the collection of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art as well as too many private and institutional collections to count. She kept exploring what could be done with painting well into the last year of her life, with her last public exhibition of recent works being held just this past summer. She instilled in all her children a love of art, and also of the arts writ large, encouraging all of them to see and soak up as much of what the world had to offer as possible.

Services were private. In keeping with Kathy's wishes, the family requests that those wishing to send condolences consider donations to either The Clio DH Axilrod Foundation, a charitable organization established in honor of her late granddaughter, or the Ukrainian Red Cross.