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In Tribute (From Oregon Pilots
Association-OPA Newsletter November 2002)
Kitty was born March 30, 1930. She and Floyd
were married in 1952. (That's 50 years, folks!!) She
had been a medical technologist for Kaiser Permanente. Kitty got her private license in about 1979 and her instrument rating in about 1981. Isabelle Martell was her primary flight instructor. (These dates are from Gladys' memory, but she thinks they're pretty close.) Getting your pilot's license and then IFR after the age of 50 doesn't happen often now let alone in the early 1980's. Kitty didn't like turbulence very much. Whenever they hit turbulence, Kitty would say, "Oops. Oops." So they took to calling her "Kitty Oops." It was one of Kitty's dreams to make the trip to Oshkosh and she was finally able to go last year. She flew there with Twila Poppleton; Gladys flew with Benta in another plane and joined them there. (Jim Pappas and his family also took that trip.) Kitty and Twila camped out under the wings of Kitty's plane (A wonderful 1978 Cessna Hawk XP - 736SS). One night they had a thunderstorm and blew Kitty's tent down. They had to hang their sleeping bags on the air plane to dry. After Kitty lost her medical, Gladys would fly with her just so Kitty could get into the air. She truly loved flying; it was really hard for her to sell her plane this year. Kitty was also an avid swimmer, skier, golfer and was even into sailboating, in fact this past year she crewed for her son on his sail boat. She always had a ready smile and was forever the optimist. She will be dearly missed. Karen Hollenbeck Hearing the news that Kitty Runyan passed away was extremely sad. Everyone thought so highly of her. Few people lived life as fully as she did, and I am sure that is how she will be remembered. The first time that I flew with her was the summer of '01 on the way to Oshkosh. This was the first AirVenture trip for either of us, and I think that she knew this would be her last chance to make the journey. As we flew the two day trip together, we remained in radio contact the entire time. Over Bozeman MT, I heard Kitty's excited voice over the radio saying: "Jim, you will never believe what happened... I was talking to Blue Angles while at 9500', and they passed directly under me at 7500'" Seeing her excitement after we landed at Oshkosh was incredible; I am so glad that I had the opportunity to make that trip with her. The picture clearly shows how she felt being there, and how she loved life. This is how I will remember Kitty. Jim Pappas |
| And notes from CAA
A couple years ago we flew to Newport for an OPA BBQ. The weather was normal - that is, clouds almost to the ground. We shot the ONP ILS approach, whew, we broke out just at minimums. The BBQ was great! Kitty had some questions about her Arnav loran so she jumped into my plane to check out some of the functions. That mission accomplished, a few minutes later, we were airborne on an IFR clearance, just about to switch to ATC when Unicom contacted us, "Is there a brown purse in the back seat?" Yup, you guessed it, it was Kitty's. So, outbound at 1000 feet we requested another approach into ONP and flew the whole procedure to minimums again. Floyd ran out to retrieve the purse and we departed again for UAO. We had a great time, honed IFR skills and had a good laugh over that one. Kitty and Floyd hanagared their Hawk XP in the line of hangars near our plane and we had many a pleasant hangar talk at the airport and often launched to flyouts. I remember racing back from Sunriver to UAO one day, both at different altitudes, she won. But then, Kitty was always a winner - a person with a great many friends who will miss her dearly. Her wings have now carried her to the highest flight levels. Jake Jacobs |