Katharine Mary Webb

July 24, 1946 - March 21, 2025

Lifelong Alaskan, Katharine Mary (Coghlan) Webb, peacefully passed away on Friday, March 21, 2025, at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital with her devoted younger sister Bonnie Coghlan by her side. Kathy was born July 24, 1946, at Anchorage, Alaska's Providence Hospital, the closest facility at the time to her parents' Wasilla homestead. Her older brother Gerald "Skip" Coghlan happily greeted her, and he proved to be a close friend her entire life.

Kathy graduated from Wasilla High School in 1964, as joint-Valedictorian with her close friend Karen Olson, a title Kathy always claimed to have received, solely because her other brilliant childhood friend, Kelly (Palmquist) Langford, was no longer enrolled with the school. Part of Kathy's early childhood is depicted in brother Skippy's book, "Wasilla, A Great Place Among the Lakes" (Skip Coghlan, 2017).

After high school, Kathy moved to Fairbanks in 1964 to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks, then known as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. While there, she met fellow student, Richard "Dick" Webb. On September 1, 1967, they married in her hometown, Wasilla. The newlyweds returned to Fairbanks where they lived and managed The Tamarac Inn, Dick's family-owned motel, for many years. Some of these memories are shared in the book, True North in Alaska: Memories of Indians, Eskimos, Bush Pilots, and Us" (Jack B. Webb, Richard B. Webb, and Susan Hankey Webb, 2004).

Kathy and Dick moved on to other careers in Fairbanks and she gave birth to their two children: Richard "Rick" and Valerie "Val" Webb there. Kathy worked for the Fairbanks School District for over 30 years. She taught English at West Valley and Lathrop High Schools, and Tanana Middle School, and served as Vice Principal at West Valley for nine years in the 1980s. Kathy would often proudly reminisce about her thousands of "former students."

Kathy was known for her big smile, for her reciting of poetry, for breaking into song at a moment's notice, and for randomly bursting out into tears over some heartfelt reason like the oppressed in a foreign country. She was a staunch feminist, activist, Lion's member, boss, and smart-aleck, all at a whopping height of, at best, 5-foot-2-inches.

Kathy loved to host large parties, and the Webbs' "Viewpointe House" on Farmers Loop in Fairbanks was a major gathering place in the late 1980's through the 1990's. One week, Kathy would host an event for the Democratic Party, and the next, her husband would host for the Republican Party. Kathy and the family hosted numerous foreign exchange students, traveling athletes, visiting politicians, and Lions Club members. At one point, with great surprise to her family because she did not like to cook or clean, Kathy got the inkling to run a B&B in the house for a few years. And, of course, Kathy hosted hundreds of parties for fellow educators: the NEA, the FEA, the Gene DeWild-era thespians, and all the beloved West Valley staff and faculty. Kathy remained proud West Valley WOLFPACK for life.

Some of the best gatherings were during the holidays, when family and strangers alike gathered at their Viewpointe House. Kathy appreciated she didn't have to cook because her sister and sister's in-laws would do all the heavy lifting in the kitchen and prepare the feast. The household was filled with laughter, love, music, and card games. Kathy could play "a mean" hand of "Octo-Solitaire" (that's what it's called when eight people simultaneously play solitaire mingled into one game!).

After retirement in 1997, Kathy and Dick moved to Wasilla to care for her widowed mother until her passing and they ended up living there for 20 years. In Wasilla, Kathy enjoyed proclaiming, "If you're lucky enough to live on a lake, you're lucky enough." She enjoyed many joyous summer seasons in her childhood home on Jacobsen Lake, playing cards and Dominos (Mexican Train) with her beloved brother-in-law, Jack Webb, and wife, Susan "Fred" Webb. Dick and Kathy were both members of the Palmer Lions Club and regularly attended Christ First United Methodist Church off Knik Goose Bay Road in Wasilla.

In 2018, after being gone from Fairbanks for twenty years, Dick and Kathy walked into the Fairbanks Raven Landing Senior Community Center and heard someone ask, "Is that the Webbs?" They happily looked around and saw many familiar faces and they moved into Raven Landing without hesitation.

Her heart broke when her husband of 52 years passed away April 21, 2020, and she gave up the exhausting battle of caregiving-with-all-of-her-might to save her life's partner and best friend. In her last years, she found comfort in being a grandmother in the best way she knew how, including boasting of the grandchildren's achievements to her fellow residents at Raven Landing.

She will be missed and her memory will glow forever in our hearts.

Kathy is survived by her son Richard "Rick" Webb, Jr., his wife, Emma (Welles) Webb, and granddaughter, Jane Violet Webb, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and her daughter Valerie (Val) Webb, her husband, Matthew Blake, and grandsons Lucas Andrew Blake and Rocky Timmons Blake, of Fairbanks. She is also survived by her brother, Gerald "Skip" Coghlan of Big Bend, Wisconsin, and sister, Bonnie Coghlan, of Fairbanks, and many nieces and nephews, and extended family. She is predeceased by her spouse, Dick, and her parents Gene and Violet Coghlan.

The family would like to thank the amazingly patient and kind staff at Raven Landing and at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for their generosity, consideration, respectful service, and kind hearts. Fairbanks truly is the Golden Heart of Alaska.

A memorial service will be held at the Northern Lights Cemetery, 2318 Yankovich Road, in Fairbanks at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. Donations in her honor may be sent to the Fairbanks Breadline at https://breadlineak.org.