It is with great sadness that the family of Katherine Morgan Pritchett Fleming, announce her passing. Kate sadly left us on the morning of March 7, 2024, she suffered a cardiac event.
Kate was born on October 12, 1939. She was 84 years old.
Preceded in death by her late husband David Anthony Fleming (1973) her daughter, Mary Kate Fleming (2010), her parents Dorothy Morgan Pritchett (1944) and Thomas Manley Pritchett, Sr.(1978) and her stepmother, Elberta Adamson Pritchett (2011).
Kate attended grammar school at Overbrook and Parmer and was a graduate of the famous Hillsboro High School “Class of 57". Then she studied journalism at Peabody college. Kate’s love for Vandy football was only supplanted by her allegiance to Dan Marino and the Dolphins during her time in Miami; she continued to attend Commodore and Titan games well into her 80’s. She was an avid sports fan, attending many PGA tournaments, multiple Masters, US Opens, and Superbowl’s during her life. A lover of music especially Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, and Ahmad Jamal. She was a gourmet cook, renowned for her marinara sauce, expressing her love for family and friends through her cooking. Her love of food, wine and cooking is one of many things passed on to her children.
Kate began her career as an American Airlines Flight Attendant(Stewardess) in 1960. Initially assigned to "milk runs" on the piston engine Convair and DC-6 out of New York's Idlewild Airport (now JFK),
Kate eventually went cross country to Los Angeles, where she transitioned to American's "state of the art" Boeing 707: a "heady" and responsible position for a 22-year-old at the dawning of the "JET AGE”.
In her three-year career with American, Kate found lifelong friends; met and rubbed elbows with REAL superstars such as Steve McQueen and Frank Sinatra
(note: Kate was invited to and attended Mr. Sinatra's fourth and final wedding, his marriage to Barbara Ann Marx in Las Vegas in 1976!).
Kate resided in multiple cities throughout the USA, NYC & Los Angeles with American Air; Kate also made homes in Roanoke, Miami Beach on Biscayne Bay, Las Vegas, Memphis, and actually purchased and lived in, one of the first Co-op's sold in Trump Plaza in Manhattan.
Kate is survived by her son, Gregory Pritchett Fleming of Miami & Walla Walla, Washington; her daughter Ohara Mars of New York City; and her twins, Jon Nappa of San Diego and Mark Nappa of Denver, Colorado.
Grandchildren Jack Gregory Fleming, Sienna and Drew. Her siblings, Judith Pritchett Durham of Pierson, Florida; Anne Pritchett Duncan, Mary Helen Pritchett, Thomas Pritchett, Jr. and Susan Pritchett Allison of Nashville, and Jane Pritchett of Key West, Florida, as well as many nieces & nephews.
A memorial service honoring Kate will be held from 10:00 AM until 1: 00 PM on April 5, 2024 at the Pavilion at the Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens on Highway 100. Burial to follow at Mount Calvary cemetery on Lebanon Road.
Kate manifested the intrepid adventurer present in all of us, she definitely "traveled to the beat of a different drum": Kate thought nothing of driving from New York to Las Vegas, solo!
Or, as she often observed: "Well, You DO meet the nicest people, 'flying upfront' in the Clipper(Pan Am Airways) on the nonstop from LAX to MIA!!!" Kate embodied that timeless maxim: "Hail Fellow-Well Met" and will be long remembered and not easily forgotten.
So, the next time, a recent acquaintance buys you a drink or you set up a round for the patrons; reflect on and recall all the good times you had being around and with Kate and quietly smile, for Kate is there, somewhere, smiling with you.
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