The Skaggs-Files

Katherine's father is Houston Cole. She is married to William (Bill) Albert Shanks. She has three daughters: Stephanie Michelle Tricarico, Melissa Iris Fay Castillo, and Linda Marie Mae Skipper.
Katherine is buried at South Park Cemetery in Roswell, NM. She lost her battle with cancer after eight months from being diagnosed with it.
Katherine was the type of person who would give you what she could if you asked, while she couldn't even afford to. She had a huge heart and a wise innocence. She had the type of personality that people immediately took to.
I remember David, Paul and I (her brothers) and our friends (in our high school years) would go to visit Katherine and we would spend hours laughing, playing card and board games, listening to music, going to "Denny's" late at night to eat and many more wonderful memories. Linda (our sister) had so many more memories of Kat, as they were about a year apart. Katherine and her husband Bill Shanks would go visit Linda and her husband Gary Hernes, in Santa Fe, New Mexico often. Kat and Bill would stay for a couple of weeks visit. Dale (our other brother) would come in from California to Santa Fe and we would all leave from there and drive North to Heron Lake, near Chama, New Mexico and camp for 10 days. Just roughing it. We always played a game called Poker-Kino at the camp site. It was a cross between Poker and Bingo. We would play for prizes. I think our sister Linda won most of the time. :) The family camping trips would include our father (Linda & Kat's step-father) Dudley Parks and his second wife Frieda, Linda and Kat's daughters, Shauna Hernes, Michelle Shanks, Melissa Shanks, Linda Shanks and sometimes their friends, Dale Parks, David Parks and myself, Gary Parks. Our brother Paul Parks never was able to make these camping trips with us due to work or other reasons though he always wanted to. We made this trip for a few years in a row before we all started taking annual vacations to separate places.
I so very miss my sister. She was the first of us six children to leave this earth. She is our pioneer to the after life who will be waiting for us when it is our turn to be called Home. Our mother, Margaret Mae "Underwood" Parks was there to welcome Kat Home.
I love you so very much Kat... -Gary

According to Kat's death certificate, her cause of death was "Complications of metastatic carcinoma of the cervix".
*You can find my sister Katherine on "findagrave.com" website*

To my beautiful sister Katherine's descendents: Know that your fore-mother was a beautiful sister, daughter, mother, grandmother and friend. She was deeply loved by her family and friends and is missed so much. She has made her journey into the unknown with a light in her soul. It is true, with all the pain she was in the last few months of her life, the day she passed away, she had a smile on her face. That let us all know she was no longer in pain and that rekindled my faith in God.