Community Guide 2017
therapy and returned home to wonderful fresh fruit and soup prepared by friends in the Valley. After much rest and recuperation, Kate began compiling a retrospective of her recordings. Her last recorded song, “The Wind Blows Wild,” was done in a hospital room. She spent much time in the Sierra and prepared for a bone marrow transplant in September. Friends and musi- cians supported her through benefit concerts, blood dona- tions, and other efforts. Complications from the transplant destroyed her immune system, and she never recovered. Kate died on December 10 and was buried at Goodyear’s Bar in the Sierra foothills, a place she called her spiritual home. “I live for a sense of feeling and purposefulness in this world, so that I could stop my life at any point and feel it has been worthwhile, that the people I loved and my children have reached a point where their lives are going to come to fruit. As far as something I live by it’s to try to be as alive as possible and feel free to make my mistakes, to be as honest as I can with myself.”
Kate Wolf, continued
we are formed by the rising sun and with the owl our spirit flies to say goodbye when our day is done. While we who travel on the rim seeking love and finding understanding go safely on our way like the river running in the canyon.
Following the 1983 release of her live album, Give Your- self to Love , Kate decided to take a year off from perform- ing. It was a time to rest, evaluate her life, and spend more time with her family. In 1985, she was again on tour. A new album, Poet’s Heart , was released. She was featured on the shows Prairie Home Companion and Austin City Limits , gaining national exposure. Kate entered the hospital for a hysterectomy in 1986. During post surgery examination and testing, she was diagnosed with acute leukemia. She underwent chemo-
Valley View (Photo by Peter Oppenheimer)
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SGVCC
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