Rose Katherine "Kay" Van Buren

Rose Katherine ‘Kay’ Van Buren

Kay Van Buren passed away at Providence Hospital on July 23, 2021, after suffering from Covid-19 and bacterial pneumonia. She was 94. She was born Rose Katherine Rasey in Harvard, Illinois on March 26, 1927, to Ray Rasey and Rozelle (Duval) Rasey, but Kay never like the name Rose. She was their only child. Kay remembered good times at her grandparents’ farm on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin.

When she was six, it was 1933 and the worst part of the Great Depression. Her mother kept a journal of this trying time, which reads:

First Day

We left Phelps (Illinois) Friday noon, July 7 ^th , 1933. Ray couldn’t get any more work, we couldn’t pay our rent or buy Katharine any more food, there was nothing more to do but hit the road. We packed our trunk and a box, washed the few breakfast dishes, and started out with twenty-five cents in money.

The Rasey family walked the road, got rides for a few miles, spent the nights in barns, and relied upon the goodwill of strangers for food. At some towns Ray and Katharine would go house to house until they came back with enough for lunch in a paper sack. They heard there was work in Casper, Wyoming and headed there. Later, after the family had been on the road nearly three weeks, Kay’s mother wrote, ‘Monday—what to do we didn’t know. Ray took Kathrine out and got her a cup of hot cocoa. I just hoped I’d die before they came back.’ But once they made it to Casper and Ray got a job, she wrote, ‘I’m glad we had nerve enough to make the trip. I wouldn’t advise any one to try it, not with a child any way. Kathrine wasn’t sick a minute and never made a fuss or cried once.’ Even as a six-year-old, we can see Kay’s qualities emerging.

Life didn’t improve substantially until the family moved to Seattle in 1940 and Kay’s father worked in the shipyards. Kay graduated from Seattle high school in 1945, then married Chester Goode who was transferred to Walla Walla. Kay got work at the telephone company. When Chester was transferred again to Montana, Kay said she didn’t want to go to Montana and stayed. Later she married Jim Benefiel, having met him at his service station on Main Street. They had three boys, Jim born on January 27, 1949, Gary, born on December 31, 1950, and Art, born on June 5, 1953. Jim and Kay would later divorce.

Kay would marry Virgil Van Buren in 1970 and enjoyed their ten acres on Two Acre Lane until his death in 2004. She loved the cabin that she and Virgil had up on Lewis Peak, where she could look down upon a creek and out on creation.

Kay loved animals and seemed to be able to communicate with many of them. She also loved the outdoors and often would quote Psalm 121 as she looked up to the foothills of the Blue Mountains. She was famous for her ‘Granny Kay hugs’, where she seemed to nestle right under your arms. She was interested in a wide variety of subjects and kept her mind active by subscribing to several magazines: Astronomy, Discover, Science Focus as well as Arizona Highways and Country. She loved to travel as is attested by her 44 photo albums, where she documented her trips to Australia, Scotland, Italy, and all over the United States. Kay was quietly generous to family, and to causes she believed in, especially Native Americans. Even though she was frustrated with a ‘foggy brain’ in later years, she believed God was good and praised Him every morning by singing hymns, such as ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus,’ ‘Now the Day is Over,’ and ‘How Great Thou Art.’ She loved learning about what God was like and what is expected of us at her church, Christ Community Fellowship. She will be missed, but she was calm, not in pain, ready to die and meet her Lord.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Ray and Rozelle Rasey, her aunt, Dorothy Kjellstrom, her husband, Virgil Van Buren, and her stepson Kevin Van Buren.

Kay is survived by her sons and their wives, Jim, and Nancy Benefiel, of Lansdowne, Virginia, Gary and Susy Benefiel of Walla Walla, Art and Lori Benefiel of Bend, Oregon, her husband’s brother, Gene Van Buren of Nampa, Idaho, her husband’s nephew Leonard Van Buren, seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

A Memorial service will be Saturday, July 31, 2021, at 2:30 PM, at Christ Community Fellowship at 3170 Peppers Bridge Road, Walla Walla, WA 99362.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the Blue Mountain Humane Society and the Christian Aid Center through the Herring Groseclose Funeral Home 315 W. Alder St., Walla Walla, WA 99362.

Friends and family are invited to sign the online guest book at: www.herringgroseclose.com