Katherine Foster Tedford

A viewing will be held from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at Hampton Vaughan Crestview Funeral Home. A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Edgemere Church of Christ, officiated by the Rev. Ken Holsberry of the Tenth and Broad Church of Christ.

A gifted soprano vocalist, Katherine performed at recitals and concerts throughout her life, ranging from classic arias of Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Puccini, and Strauss to American tunes like the National Anthem and Nina Simone’s “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” She sang everywhere she went, including in her final hours, to the amazement of her hospice audience, a strong rendition of Doris Day's “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.” The song ends:

So kiss me my sweet

And so let us part

And when I grow too old to dream

That kiss will live in my heart

She was born Emma Katherine Broyles in Wichita Falls, Texas, on December 23, 1925, to David Britton Broyles and Annie Josephine (née Cook) Broyles. She was their only child to survive childbirth. Tragically, her mother later died in labor at age 34, two weeks after Katherine turned 3. Two days later, Katherine was adopted by her mother's sister Loula Cremora (née Cook) Foster and her husband Walter Wayne Foster, who raised her at 1612 Monroe Street in Wichita Falls. The Fosters also had a son James Lewis Foster (born in 1909). Katherine would refer to her adoptive mother as “Aunt Doll.” Her adoptive father Walter was the founder of the Foster Cathead Company of Wichita Falls. He claimed that his business outfitted oil rigs on every oil field in the world.

As a student in grade school, Katherine joked she “always did good in spelling, music, and recess.” She grew more dedicated as she got older, graduating from Wichita Falls High School in 1943. In Fall 1943, she entered Hardin Junior College (which would become Midwestern State University), where she focused on her singing and joined the Beta Beta sorority. She had spent several summers with her family in Long Beach, Calif., and was considering pursuing a career in Hollywood. She auditioned for a television job at WFAA in Dallas in summer 1944.

During Katherine's youth, Aunt Doll would often invite the neighborhood paperboy, Glenn Elwood Tedford, over to their house, where Aunt Doll would “buy anything he sold!” Katherine wasn't buying, though. But Glenn was persistent. After joining the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, Glenn wrote Katherine at least 74 letters in between his training stateside and 31 missions in Europe as a B-24J bomber pilot, rising to the rank of captain after his final mission on D-Day. In his earliest surviving letter, sent August 14, 1943, from a training base in Idaho, Glenn confesses that “I have thought of you and your singing quite often.” By September 1943, after a quick trip back to Wichita Falls, he was certain he wanted to marry Katherine. “I know we will be very happy together,” he wrote. For months, Katherine was unconvinced. Aunt Doll thought Katherine was too young for marriage. And Katherine was concerned about Glenn's faith. “I am reading my Bible like you asked me to,” Glenn responded on October 29, 1943. He often would tell her how he was going to church. And Glenn would suggest that Katherine didn't need college or a job for their life together, saying that were she to “study to hard” (sic) it could be bad for her health.

Katherine's heart seems to have changed after Glenn's letter dated April 16, 1944. A big red lipstick kiss is planted on that letter's envelope. Glenn wrote, “You know since I have been over here I have nearly forgotten how to dance. Do you think you will be able to put up with me until I can learn again? I think about the most wonderful thing I could think of to happen to me now would be for me to get to come home and hold you in my arms and to hear you say you love me again.” The day before D-Day, Glenn wrote a letter from his base in England, ending with these words: “I would give almost anything to hear you sing now. I am hoping to be home soon.”

Katherine married Glenn on September 16, 1944, at a friend's home at 3208 Beech Street in Wichita Falls. Her bridal attendants included Glenn's sisters Peggy Tedford, Carolyn Tedford, and Jo Annabell Tedford. The newlyweds honeymooned near the beach in Santa Monica, Calif. Following the war, they returned to Wichita Falls, where they both joined the Foster Cathead family business. Katherine left college, and Glenn prevailed upon her to work less. She sometimes helped to exhibit equipment at trade shows, while he rose to part owner and vice president and sales manager of Foster Cathead before retiring in 1974.

Katherine and Glenn had two children: Glenn Elwood Tedford Jr. (born in 1945), and Walter Wayne Tedford (born in 1947). They became members of the Edgemere Church of Christ, and served on the local Rotary. They played golf competitively in Rotary International tournaments around the world. Katherine won fifth place in 1984 in a golf tournament at Gleneagles, Scotland. Katherine loved animals, and they had several pets during their marriage. They served as sponsors of the squadron adoption program at Sheppard Air Force Base for more than 30 years. They traveled widely, including a 2.5-month European vacation in 1962 with their sons.

They would be married for 52 years, until Glenn died in 1997 of a heart attack at a golf course at age 74.

Katherine was preceded in death by her husband Glenn Tedford Sr., sons Glenn Tedford Jr. and Walter Tedford, step-brother James Foster, and daughter-in-law Pamela (née Estes) Padget. She is survived by sister-in-law Carolyn (née Tedford) Looney and brother-in-law Bill Looney of Wichita Falls, Texas; sister-in-law Irene Tedford Jensen of Sparks, Nev.; daughter-in-law Heather (née Hamilton) Tedford of Wichita Falls, Texas; two granddaughters, Patricia (née Tedford) Chupka and her husband Art Chupka of Pflugerville, Texas, and Amy Tedford Aston and her husband Mark Aston of Granbury, Texas; and six great-grandchildren, Cade Chupka, Caleb Chupka, Emma Revett, Avery Revett, Lucas Aston, and Makalyn Aston.

Katherine will be entombed at the family mausoleum at Hampton Vaughan Crestview Memorial Park. Pallbearers will include Cade Chupka, Caleb Chupka, Christopher Treadaway, David Treadaway, Jeff Nunn, and Rick Appling.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wichita Falls Humane Society.