Katharine Clayton Plant Fain

Katharine "Kate" Fain died Sunday, January 26th, at home in Austin of a broken heart, 14 months after the death of her beloved husband Ty (pictured above) and, with him, a big chunk of what made life valuable. Ty and Kate had shared so much—their passion for politics, the Rio Grande, their friends, good times and grand gatherings in Marathon and Austin.

Rarely is a love so manifest. Kate described their marriage in the words of Louis Kaufman Anspacher: "Marriage is that relation between man and woman in which the independence is equal, the dependence mutual, and the obligation reciprocal." Together they shared and gave to others a better world. They were thinkers and idealists, who explored every corner of it in conversation, ideas and action.

Kate was born in Hartford, CT, to Genevieve and Harold Plant. She grew up in Media, PA, and, after college in Washington, D.C., she joined startup National Congressional Analysis Corporation with founder Tyrus Fain, who became her husband and life partner. The entrepreneurs built a thriving, innovative business abstracting and indexing the Congressional Record, creating daily Cabinet level briefing reports for Executive Branch Departments and Congress. Following sale of the business, Kate and Ty edited several books for R.R. Bowker's Public Documents series, including tomes on National Health Insurance, the Federal Reorganization, and the Intelligence Community.

Kate and Ty relocated to Austin in the mid-1970s, marrying in 1979. Kate developed a successful political consulting business, specializing in political and legislative research, that continued through Kate and Ty's years at their welcoming compound in Marathon, on the edge of Big Bend, and until her death. She was perhaps the preeminent legislative research specialist in Texas.

Dividing time for more than a decade between Austin and Marathon, they returned to Austin, remaining strong political activists in their semi-retirement. Kate worked tirelessly with Ty in developing the Rio Grande Institute, a non-profit dedicated to the economic development and ecological and historic preservation along the Rio Grande.

She was a woman of generous heart, sharp wit, and keen intellect who loved travel, books, music and The New York Times, especially on Sundays. She was an avid student of the historical wealth revealed in Times obituaries. Kate never slowed in her commitment to the causes that mattered to her, from the plight of immigrants to human rights for all to the latest political assaults against women.

Kate is survived by her niece, Heidi Plant, among other relatives, and a wealth of devastated friends.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Ty and Kate Fain Border Justice Fund of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid http://www.trla.org/tyfainfund . Celebrations in Austin and Big Bend are pending. Contact: Diana Bittern <deltabird@gmail.com>