Katherine Elizabeth (Caserta) Stokes, 79, died November 12, succumbing to the cancer that had racked her body, freeing her soul to rejoin the many beloved pets that preceded her across the rainbow bridge.
A lifelong resident of Paducah, Kentucky, Mrs. Stokes raised two daughters as a single mother in Paducah with the help of her brother, Stephen Caserta. She also helped ensure countless other children got a healthy start in life as an overnight nursery and labor and delivery nurse at the city’s hospitals for decades and delighted in collecting and sharing first-day photos of her infant charges. She began her career as an ER nurse after earning her nursing bachelor’s degree at St. Mary’s Academy.
Mrs. Stokes was a familiar figure walking her rescue dogs through the neighborhood around her Cornell Street home, where for decades she lived just a few doors down from her parents, Al and Helen Caserta. Day after day, year after year, through all weather, people would see “Miss Kathy” and the dogs, usually some type of black rescue dog, often seeming to be bigger than she was.
After volunteering in dog rescue efforts for decades, she rarely turned any animal away from her doorstep. She even expressed love for possums and spiders.
Although she had taken great pleasure in road trips and cruises most of her life, as shown by her extensive collection of tourist coffee mugs and photo albums, Mrs. Stokes usually stayed close to home in retirement as she devoted herself to her ever-changing family of dogs and cats, and she was a familiar face at Lone Oak Animal Clinic.
Neither breast cancer in 2013 nor melanoma in 2023 slowed her down or took away any of her independence . Only a stroke in the spring forced her to be away from her animals — four dogs and five cats at the time. The past seven months, neighbors often stopped her relatives walking the dogs to ask about her health, offer well wishes, and express the view that Miss Kathy was the heart and soul of the neighborhood. She was grateful for the many friends who spent time visiting her at Charter Senior Living and avidly followed along their lives through Facebook.
Two of her beloved dogs, Joe and Becky, crossed the rainbow bridge this summer, joining the likes of Missy, Girlie, Sally, Macy, Dolly, Babe, Walnut, Dottie. Several of the cats have found new homes around Paducah and Mrs. Stokes’ furry survivors, dogs Buddy and Dottie and cats CoCo and Peter, are moving in with her daughters and sons-in-law, Chris and Michael Jacobs of Marietta, Georgia, and Michelle and Cameron Miller of Tyler, Texas. She also is survived by grandchildren Josh Jacobs, Caleb Jacobs, Sarah K. and husband Nikita K., and Willow (Nicole), brother Stephen Caserta, and nephew Joseph Caserta.
Donations in Mrs. Stokes’ memory may be made through direct donations to the Lone Oak Animal Clinic rescue and feral animal fund, the McGangsters Rescue for feral cats, or the Merryman House Domestic Crisis Center, and if you can welcome a stray cat or rescue dog into your home, you’ll help fill the hole she leaves behind.
