Katherine Mae Van Dyke, 90, a resident of the Forest Grove community passed away on August 29, 2025 at her home.

Kathy was born on November 27, 1934 in Seattle, WA. She was the oldest of five children born to Franklin and Lillian (Ormbrek) Jensen. She was raised in Bothell, WA until she moved with her family to Milton as a young teenager. She attended Fife High School, graduating as Valedictorian with the Class of 1953. Following school Kathy began working for the telephone company as an operator.

She met her future husband, Eugene Van Dyke, while he was stationed at McCord AFB. Kathy was passing along a message for her sister, Carol, to one of Gene’s friends and he just so happened to be on phone duty that day. He asked her out and the following week they started dating, they married within two years on November 15, 1954 in Tacoma, WA. They made their home at the Air Force base until Gene’s discharge in 1956 when they moved to a farm on Thatcher Road in Forest Grove and then to the farm in Dilley where they lived for over 60 years. They had four children together, Debbie, Ken, Paul and Kirsten.

Kathy was a very thrifty homemaker (her skills with using coupons and shopping sales were legendary), and she also worked outside the home at times to help local farmers in the area.  She was a field boss for strawberry picking, helped plant broccoli in the fall after the kids were back in school, and raised calves.  She also worked for the Oregon Dept of Agriculture as a Brand Inspector and a Field Rep once her family was raised.

Kathy and her husband, Gene, shared a mutual love of horses, and were very active with Morgan Horse clubs and developing their Beaver State Morgans farm.  Together, Kathy and Gene were instrumental in putting on regional Morgan Horse shows, and active in Morgan Horse clubs and promoting the Morgan Horse breed.  They regularly showed their Morgan horses throughout the Pacific Northwest and bred and raised a national champion.

Kathy enjoyed cooking and kept her family well fed with locally grown food. She was active in her children’s activities including being a 4H leader. She enjoyed traveling to visit family and even ventured to Europe for a grand tour. Kathy also volunteered at her church, St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Forest Grove.

She is preceded in death by her parents and a sister Carol Wilson (Horace+).

She is survived by her loving husband, Eugene, four children, Debbie Proebstel (Don+) of Forest Grove, Ken Van Dyke and his wife Leia both of Forest Grove, Paul Van Dyke of Denali, Alaska, Kirsten Taylor (Steve+) of Maple Valley, WA, three siblings, Lois Foster (Jim+), Linda Tillman (Warren), Frank Jensen (Sharla), three grandchildren, Michael Beyl, Kelsey Payne (Sam) and Grace Taylor and one great-Grandson, Arden Payne.