Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Katharine Beckwith Abbott, a longtime resident of Pacific Palisades who lived in good health until the very end of her life, passed away peacefully on April 25, just two days shy of her 100th birthday. “I arrived at her home on Monday, April 24 with a carful of gifts,” said Abbott’s daughter, Kathie, of Piedmont, California. “All of her family and friends were coming to celebrate her birthday on Thursday.” Instead, Abbott suffered a stroke shortly after her daughter arrived and died the following day. Private services were held on May l at Woodlawn Cemetery, handled by Gates, Kingsley & Gates. “Mother had a very long and very happy life filled with family, friends and many winning bridge hands,” said her daughter. “All who knew her will miss her wonderful smile and incredible blue eyes.” Katharine (“Katie”) Beckwith was born in Akron, Ohio, on April 27, 1906, the youngest of six sisters, one of whom lived to be 107. She graduated from Akron State University with an education degree. One day, while driving along a country road with a girlfriend, Katie met Dick Abbott and one of his friends, and the four decided to drive to the nearest town and have coffee. Katie and Dick began dating and were married in 1929. Katie taught school for two years in Akron, then devoted herself to raising Kathie and two sons, Richard and Jim. Meanwhile, Dick worked his entire career at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He started making tires and kept moving up to become an executive. The family lived in Akron, then in Virginia and North Carolina before moving to Los Angeles. “My mom played bridge, shopped and entertained out-of-town people,” her daughter recalled. “She was the supreme hostess, and it became a part-time business, supporting her husband. He always acknowledged her role and appreciated it; he knew how important that was for his career.” If a couple visited the Abbott home on business, Katie would handle the cooking, but “when it involved eight or ten people, she would get help’she didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen,” her daughter said. “But she could do both. I saw her cook and entertain for 20 people or more.” Katie was a highly skilled bridge player throughout her life and had many trophies attesting to that expertise in the cabinet at her home. Not until her final year, when her eyesight began failing and she felt she was holding up the game, did she stop playing. She and her husband greatly enjoyed taking road trips, especially down to a favorite motel in Ensenada, and especially in Dick’s XK-120 Jaguar, a beautiful two-seat roadster. “He flew so much in his job that he just loved to take motor trips,” daughter Kathie said. “He and my mom belonged to the Jaguar Club and used to go on rallies. She was the navigator because she had a wonderful sense of direction’they never got lost. After dad retired, they had a Jaguar sedan that they drove all over the United States and Canada.” The Abbots had “a great marriage’very supportive and romantic,” said their daughter, and it thrived for 58 years until Dick died in 1987. Katie was described by her daughter as a social, outgoing person, with many dear friends. “Everywhere we traveled, people just gravitated towards her, and would soon be confiding all their secrets. “She was also a strong-willed woman. She always knew her own mind. The last couple of years she had help at the house, but she continued to shop at Ralphs and handled all her financial affairs’bills and investments’until the day she died.” In addition to her daughter Kathie, she is survived by her sons, Richard of Santa Paula and Jim of Tucson; grandsons Wesley and Jeffrey; granddaughter Julie; and great-grandson Alex.
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