Kathryn (Hansen) Browning

Kathryn Hansen Browning passed from this life peacefully in the early morning of December 22, 2022, just a few weeks shy of her 99th birthday.

Kathryn was born in her family home in Salt Lake City, Utah, on January 17, 1924, to Myrtle Catherine Dean and Andrew Christian Hansen, the youngest of three girls and one boy. She was three years old when she and her siblings were in an auto accident that took her mother’s life. Her father took his four young children to the family farm in Teton City, Idaho, where his mother Annie C. Hansen became a central figure in Kathryn’s development. She cared for her grandchildren while their father continued working in Salt Lake City for two years until he married Winifred Wood.

Kathryn and her siblings lived through a couple years of change during the Great Depression as they followed their dad’s search for work to Los Angeles and Phoenix. The family eventually settled back in Teton City with her grandmother, where her dad took over running the farm.

Kathryn completed elementary school in Teton City while also working hard on the farm hoeing, thinning, herding, weeding, and feeding. She graduated from Madison High School in 1942 and married her long-time “steady” and fellow Madison classmate, Duane Browning, on June 16, 1943, in Berkeley California, just before he shipped out with the Navy for World War II.

After the war, the young couple moved back to Salt Lake City where their daughter, Lin Lee, was born. A couple years later, they moved to Idaho Falls where their son, David Reed, was born (four years after Lin Lee). Through the years, Kathryn was employed by various area entities beginning with The Post Register, Rogers Brothers Seed Company, and District 91. Later, she worked for Sharp, Anderson and Bush and EG&G, where she was a graphic artist.

Art is where Kathryn’s life really blossomed. She took an art class at the University of Utah in her first and only year in college, discovering both a love of and a talent for oil painting. She later added watercolor to her repertoire as well. While living in Idaho Falls, she joined the Idaho Falls Art Guild, painting once a week with them in the old log cabin next to McDermott Field.

When she and Duane moved to Iona a few years later, she continued her membership with the Art Guild and also began teaching art lessons on Tuesday nights in her basement. Out of that class grew the Bonneville Art Association. The group restored the historic first chapel in Iona through a lot of work and fundraising and made it a gallery and workshop space. The building was almost a second home for Kathryn through weekly painting days, art workshops with visiting instructors, art shows and summer art camps for kids. She remained active in the Association until 2014, when she left Iona to live with her granddaughter in Utah.

Kathryn and Duane opened a second chapter of child-rearing when they adopted their son’s two children, Cali and Anthony Browning. Though she didn’t complain about the burden it placed on their lives, it was nevertheless a sacrifice of some of the ease usually associated with retirement and speaks to the ethics of her upbringing.

In addition to her artistic talent, Kathryn was an excellent seamstress, creating lovely suits, dresses, coats and costumes when economics or persons petitioned for them. She was also athletic as a youth and remained healthy enough to still play baseball and ski in her late sixties.

Another outlet for her creativity was her service in the church as a Primary teacher, Sunday School teacher, President of the Young Women and Dance Co-Director with her husband. The latter calling was a great experience of getting to know the youth and performing at church festivals.

Kathryn is survived by her daughter, Lin Lee Longhurst of Etna, Wyoming; her grandchildren, Cali (Ben) Young, Anthony (Bobbi) Browning, Todd (Monica) Longhurst, Cara (Robert) Galleni, and Chris (Nicole) Longhurst; fourteen great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, siblings, husband, and son.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, December 29, 2022, at Wood Funeral Home East Side, 963 South Ammon Road. The family will visit with friends from 10:00 a.m. until 10:45 a.m. prior to services. Burial will follow at the Iona Cemetery.

Services will be broadcast live on this web page.