Kathy Ann Prothe, 52, Parker, former Osawatomie resident, died February 25, 2001 in Swan Manor Nursing Facility in LaCygne.

She was born February 18, 1949 in Quincy, IL, the daughter of John Wesley and Leota Grace Bumgarner Shively. She grew up in Osawatomie where she attended school and graduated from Osawatomie High School in 1967.

She and Gilbert Prothe were married October 12, 1967 and they became the parents of two children. They first made their home in Osawatomie and then moved to Flagstaff, AZ, for five years. After their marriage ended in divorce in 1977, she returned to the Osawatomie area.

She lived in Osawatomie and Ottawa before moving to Parker to make her home with Larry Keast in the early 1990s.

Mrs. Prothe was a certified medical aide before attending a vocational training school in Kansas City and receiving her licensed practical nursing degree in 1988. She continued to work in area nursing homes.

She was raised in the First Lutheran Church of Paola but had been attending the Faith Baptist Church in Osawatomie for the past three years.

Among those preceding her in death were her parents; a sister, Betty Cole; and Larry Keast.

Survivors include her children, Ronald Lee Prothe of Marysville, KS, and Rachelle Lynn Newport of Fontana; two brothers, Jack Shively of Osawatomie and Charles Shively of Boonville, MO; and six grandchildren.

Services were at Eddy-Birchard Funeral Home followed by burial in Osawatomie Cemetery. Pallbearers were Mike Prothe, Keith Summers, Hanford Workman, Steve DeGraeve, Tom Hannah and Wayne Gephart.