Saturday, March 16, 2013

Kathleen Beverly Harrison



Kathleen Beverly Harrison was born on April 8, 1917 in Camden, Missouri to James B. Harrison and Helen Tarwater. She had one child, Charles Edward Kleinbeck. “Cottie”, as those who knew her well called her, was a lively old woman who loved being a socialite. At a young age, she learned to enjoy school and finished with good grades. This put her in a place to help out in the business her future husband would start. She married a man named Edward Samuel Kleinbeck. Together they went into business selling parts for airplanes. Cottie spent most of her mornings working at the shop and her evenings taking care of her duties as a wife and mother.
Her son recalls how she loved to cook for her family. On his tenth birthday, Charles headed home from school with his friends to enjoy a party in his honor. As he arrived home the smell of fried chicken filled the air! He loved fried chicken and was so happy that his mother had made it special for him and his friends. He enjoyed his chicken and then gathered his friends together to show him his pet, Stevie, who happened to be a chicken. It only took a second for Cottie to realize that she had done something very bad. She had not realized that she had accidently cooked Stevie as it was hard to tell him apart from the other chickens in the coop. Although her son was heartbroken, Cottie was even more so for causing her son pain on such a special day.
Edward Samuel Kleinbeck died on September 10, 1964 leaving Cottie alone with a grieving son. After Edward’s death, she married John Fredrick Hartnett. “Big John” and Cottie continued the airplane business and John enjoyed building airplanes. They bought a beautiful home with a large hanger and a landing strip. Cottie retired from the office to become the entertainer of her friends. John and Cottie loved to host extravagant hog roasts. Along with these parties, each Sunday the whole family was expected to come for a huge shrimp feast.
As Cottie was aging, her cooking skills began to get worse. This did not stop her from wanting to feed her family each Sunday and holiday. The family still recalls a tale of woe that happened one Thanksgiving. Cottie’s pies were notoriously longed for within the family and as Thanksgiving dinner came to an end, everyone gathered to get desert. He daughter-in-law picked a piece of pecan pie and took a bite. It was later learned that Cottie had mistook Shrimp Sauce for vanilla in all her pies. Needless to say, there were many sad faces that year.
Cottie passed away of February 11, 2007.

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