Obituary published on Legacy.com by Wright’s Funeral Parlor – Kerrville on Dec. 19, 2023.
Catherine Elizabeth Rogers, (known to friends and family alike as “Corky”) passed away, secure in the presence and power of the peace of God, on Friday December 15, 2023. On the day before her passing, Corky experienced several manifestations of God’s presence and of Heaven which she was able to express to the family members which surrounded her bedside and eased what is for all mankind a challenging experience – the transition to the afterlife.
Corky was born on May 21, 1929 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. MD to Charles Harry and Sara Irene Rockey. Her father was a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, and her
mother was a graduate of Hood College, an all-girls school in Frederick, MD. Her mother established the girl’s athletic program at Drake University in Des Moines, IA. They had three children together: Bonnie, Catherine, and Charles Harry, Jr. The three of them enjoyed playing pranks on each other and unsuspecting neighbors and exploring the rapidly changing Depression era world on their bicycles. They lived in the Montclair neighborhood of Denver, and later moved to Evergreen, Colorado.
It was in Evergreen that Corky met William Pettit Rogers, and they were married on January 1, 1950. Corky wore a dress that was pieced together from her grandmother’s own wedding dress, and 2 weeks later worn by her sister Bonnie at her wedding to Bill’s brother. Like many married couples they were different in many ways, but they were united in their love for their family. They were married 60 years before his passing.
Corky and Bill both wanted to be parents of a large family, an aspiration which they certainly achieved. Corky is survived by her children John Philip “Phil” Rogers, David Peter Rogers, William
Pettit Rogers, II (and his wife Beth), Kenneth Given Rogers, Sara Elizabeth Kellner (and her husband Mark), Mary Catherine Rogers, and Nancy Kristin Mowen (and her husband Charlie). She is also survived by 14 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, one of which is on the way.
She was predeceased by her husband Bill, greatly beloved siblings Bonnie Dodson and Charles Harry Rockey, two children, Mark Jeffrey Rogers and Paul Rockey Rogers, and daughter-in-law Anita Gail Rogers.
Corky was a wonderful mother and grandmother, kind, supportive and a model of Christian virtues to everyone. Her faith in the Lord was at the core of her being. She loved the Lord, her family, and always had her eye out for the less fortunate, the lonely, the struggling, the mentally ill, and the imprisoned – she deeply felt their sorrow and reached out with compassion no matter where she was living at the time, her own personal struggles or how old she got. She was full of hope, thankfulness, love, and joy, and all these emotions came out in her words, her prayers, her twinkling eyes, her smile and the many World War II songs she loved to sing. She loved nature — thanking God every day for all the animals that lived in the woods around her house, sunsets, the falling snow, and most especially — water. Corky loved swimming in clear, cold rivers, and often used the word “delicious” to describe the feeling of the water on her body. When Corky was a little girl, it wasn’t being a mother she dreamed about, it was about being a grandmother! And she wasn’t the type of grandmother to sit in a rocking chair and watch them play, Corky was on the floor with them dressing dolls, in the front yard cheating them at croquet, flying kites with them on a beach, and in the woods with them exploring.
While Bill attended the Episcopal Seminary in Austin, Corky attended nursing school, scoring higher than all her colleagues on the qualifying exam, and 3rd in the state of Texas.
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Peter Bowman
