Katherine Stout Duncan

Published 11:37 am Friday, July 29, 2011

A memorial service for Katherine Stout Duncan, formerly of New York City and Vicksburg, will be held at her daughter Mace Duncan Ohleyer’s home at 380 Union St., Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 10.

Katherine died in Mountain Valley Hospice in Gloversville, N.Y., on March 22, 2011. With her at her death were her daughter Mace, her son Christopher, and their spouses Stuart Ohleyer and Alice Smith Duncan. The cause was cancer.

Katherine, known to all as Kitty, was born Mary Katherine Stout in Vicksburg, the only child of Dr. Norman H. Stout and Katherine Bell Stout. She attended All Saints’ School in Vicksburg and Mississippi College for Women.

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In 1944, she met James Duncan of Harrisburg, Pa., then serving in the Navy, and they later married. The couple moved to Chestertown, Md., while her husband attended Washington College on the GI Bill. After his graduation they moved to New York City, where Kitty began working in the offices of Goldman Sachs. She soon moved on to an administrative position at Videotape Productions, the first television tape facility in New York, where she met and worked with many well-known figures including Carol Burnett, Burgess Meredith, Zero Mostel and Salvador Dali.

After 10 years, Kitty left Videotape to become the manager of Showroom Outlet, a prop agency that furnished sets for movies and many daytime soap operas. She also worked as a model for the photo agency Funnyface, and her pictures were featured in ads for Bell Telephone, Sara Lee and Pepperidge Farm.

In 1976, she retired from Showroom and moved back to Vicksburg to take care of her parents and restore a family home on Fort Hill. That year she became director of the Red Cross in Vicksburg where, in addition to working on many emergencies, she developed evacuation plans for the nuclear reactor in Port Gibson. After retiring from the Red Cross, she continued working part time at the Mississippi Tourist Bureau in Vicksburg.

Kitty returned to New York City in 2005, living in Brooklyn with her daughter and family. In summer 2010, having been diagnosed with a terminal illness, Kitty toured the northeast visiting friends and family, then selected Mountain Valley Hospice as the most appropriate place for palliative care. She continued her courageous battle with cancer that had begun many years earlier.

Kitty will be remembered by all who knew her for her charm, wit, style and grit.

She is survived by son, Christopher of Canajoharie, N.Y.; daughter, Mace of Brooklyn; two granddaughters, Ella of Ithaca, N.Y., and Venice of Brooklyn; and James Duncan of New York City.

Contributions may be made to the ASPCA and the Heifer Foundation.