Cathy Kay (Johnson) Collins
October 6, 947 – March 1, 2023
Cathy was born Oct. 6, 1947 in Vallejo, CA to Orville and Charlotte Johnson. With her husband at her side, she died at home on March 1, 2023 from complications brought on by Alzheimer’s disease.
As a young adult, Cathy married Rudy Vouken and they relocated to Southern California. After a short marriage they divorced. She began her career in banking and then later became employed by Ticor Title Insurance where she traveled around the country performing audits of their various offices. In early 1981 she met Dave Collins and they married a year later in 1982.
Cathy’s husband worked at GTE. When the company relocated his office to a new community, they made a residential move as well. To avoid an unreasonably long commute, Cathy left Ticor and began working in GTE’s billing department.
Several years later, she and her husband were each offered attractive voluntary separation offers. Accepting the offers, they made the move to beautiful Sequim, WA in late 1993.
From a very young age, Cathy had a strong appreciation of music and she loved to sing. She also had a strong Christian faith and expressed it through singing with her church’s worship teams, first at Bel Air Presbyterian church in Southern California and then Sequim Community Church in Washington. She also sang in the Skylarks, a vocal trio that accompanied a 1940’s style big band. They toured the Pacific Southwest for about five weeks each winter. She was a member of the group for all nine years of their existence.
Cathy was preceded in death by her parents, by a sister, Greta; and by three brothers, Harley, Leslie, and Larry. She is survived by two brothers, Jay (Betty), her twin brother Carroll, and one sister-in-law, Jean. She’s also survived by two step-daughters, Suzanne and Linda, and one step-son, Wayne. Additionally, she leaves behind six step-grandchildren and seventeen step-great grandchildren.
Cathy’s final days were made much more comfortable due to the incredible care provided by Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County. The care and compassion of each person involved in her care is beyond what words can express.
A memorial gathering of family and friends will be held this summer at a date yet to be determined.
Marion Singleton ‘Doug’ Bedinger
Photo courtesy of Bedinger family / Marion Singleton ‘Doug’ Bedinger
February 11, 1932 − March 21, 2023
Marion Singleton “Doug” Bedinger, 91, of Sequim, WA, passed away at home on March 21, 2023.
Doug was born on February 11, 1932 in Navasota, TX and grew up in eastern Texas. In college he studied geology, graduating in 1955 from Texas Tech University. As a new graduate, Doug joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and moved his young family to Washington DC for the first year of his 32-year tenure with the USGS, before moving to Little Rock, AR.
Doug’s time in Little Rock was filled with many grand adventures, professional and personal. Float trips on the Buffalo River in Arkansas and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with his colleagues were adventures talked about for years afterwards. A natural history guide of the geothermal waters of Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, commissioned by the National Park Service (NPS), was a publication he enjoyed authoring, particularly as it was outside the scope of his normal research.
Doug spent an additional 10 years in Lakewood, CO working on hydrogeologic issues in nuclear waste disposal. After turning 55 and one second, Doug became eligible for retirement from the USGS and moved to Las Vegas, NV to continuing hydrogeologic research at UNLV.
During his time in Las Vegas, he met his wife, Mary. Together they discovered the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula (OP) of Washington. Finally unencumbered by employment, they relocated to the OP in 1992, building a home on an 18-acre plot complete with a micro-rainforest habitat, grazing pastures, and trout pond. A greenhouse was later added that contained orchids, assorted tropical plants. As state law eventually allowed, a small number of cannabis plants were added.
They enjoyed visits from friends, family, being active in community issues, and became caretakers of a revolving cast of llamas, dogs, cats, geese, chickens, and a rooster named “Charles R.”
In 2020, Doug and Mary moved to a home on the 8 th fairway of the Sunland golf course where they watched, and occasionally dodged, passing golf balls. They particularly enjoyed seeing the bald eagles nesting in a Douglas Fir tree overlooking the ninth green, immediately adjacent to a pond filled with rainbow trout; trips there by foot were numerous enough that Doug was on hand during one occasion when an eagle foraged a meal from the pond.
Doug loved genealogical research and pursued it his entire adult life, providing significant content to the Bedinger.org website.
Doug is survived by his wife, Mary Bedinger, his three children: George, Mark, and Susan; Mary’s children: Leslie, and Rachel, and eight grandchildren: Samantha, Morgan, Emily, Katie, Tommy, AJ, Jordan, and Emily A.
In lieu of flowers, his family suggest donations to Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County.
Sharon Briggs
Photo courtesy of Roger Briggs / Sharon Briggs
To Reach a Star
To Honor Sharon Briggs, a Parkinson’s Victim
With Love from her husband Roger
Our family, our friends, neighbors and Assured Hospice allreally came through for us. I’m very proud of them and grateful to them all.
This had to be one of those moments that came together with the effort of many to focus on what was important for Sharon’s comfort and safety, to do all we could to help her and me cope and manage this horrible disease. It does all it can to steal your life away.
Sharon wouldn’t let it. She fought its ferocity, gave all her energy to the fight and never gave in. She is my tough redheaded angel. How wonderful to have such a spirit by my side for 56+ years, together producing children with the same toughness and heart. She finally won her battle on the evening of March 7, 2023.
We all gave her permission to slip the surly bonds of earth that night so she could join a higher power that could protect and keep her safe on the rest of her eternal journey.
For our part, this was our gift to our lovely and beloved rose of Sharon. She was our gift in life and so many, many other lives.
My gift was in honoring the vows I made to love her, to honor her, to comfort her, and to keep her in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as I live.
I only wish as her caregiver in these final days she might have lingered a while longer so we could say our final goodbyes. I told her though it’s OK to leave me to begin your journey into eternity and that I will always love you. I will join you soon in the place we met in 1965.
We have more roads to travel together. Will you be my guide and take my hand? Lead me to our to our promised land?
I will follow.That is certainly fair. For all those miles we traveled together on earth by car, train, ship and our feet, I do owe you. On earth we take these conveyances to the next city. Now, darling Sharon Ann, we need only death to reach our star.
Please consider a donation to the American Parkinson’s Disease Association — https://www.apdaparkinson.org/.
Richard Harold Dinger
Richard Harold Dinger of Sequim died of Parkinson’s Disease on March 20, 2023, at Sherwood Assisted Living.
He was 77.
Dinger was born Aug. 3, 1945.
No services are planned.
Sign an online guestbook for the family at drennanford.com.
