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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