Kathleen Genevieve Rhodes Shaw
1938 - 2017

Kathleen Genevieve Rhodes Shaw, of Jamestown, passed away Saturday, May 20, 2017 at the Lutheran Home and Rehab Center from complication of stomach cancer. She was 78 years old.

Kathy lived a full and eventful life. Born October 7, 1938, in the Town of Persia, NY, to the late Richard Dana Snyder and Dorothy Evelyn Skinner, she grew up on a farm on Pigeon Valley Road in Little Valley, NY.

After graduating from Little Valley Central School in 1956, Kathy joined the U.S. Air Force. In 1957, she was stationed to Eglin AFB in Ft. Walton beach, FL, where she met and married Gordon “Dusty” Smith Rhodes. The couple was wed for twenty-eight years and had three sons: Mark “Marcus” Llewellyn, Wendell “Ben” Eugene, and Galen Sherard.

A bit of a gypsy, Kathy lived in Germany, Florida, Maryland, Louisiana, California, Idaho, and Illinois, before finally returning home to Jamestown in 2000. At one time or another, she set foot in each of the 48 contiguous states, as well as Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, and Great Britain. She camped out in the Black Forest of Bavaria, went white-water rafting on the Snake River in Idaho, celebrated Mardis Gras in New Orleans and Cinco de Mayo in San Antonio, and swam in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1971, Kathy graduated with a certificate of nursing from the Jamestown School of Practical Nursing. While working as a Licensed Practical Nurse in various nursing homes and hospitals around the country, she attended college part time for over a decade, until she finally earned a degree in nursing from Jamestown Community College in 1988. Her last nursing job was as Director of Nursing at Good Samaritan Village Nursing Home in Moscow, ID. She retired from nursing in 1998.

Kathy’s interests included needlework, knitting, and crocheting, until arthritis in her hands forced her to quit those hobbies. However, she was also an avid reader, especially of spy and horror novels, which she continued to do. She also enjoyed watching movies, playing computer games, and spending time with family and friends.

Kathleen was preceded in death by her second husband, Paul N. Shaw, whom she married on May 28, 2005, and who passed away on December 21, 2012. She is also preceded by her older brothers, Phillip and Donald Snyder.

She is survived by her three sons, fourteen grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, as well as her brother, Richard Danna Snyder of Randolph, NY, and her two sisters: Nancy O’Dell of Dunkirk, NY, and Sally Reed of Butte, Montana.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Thursday (May 25, 2017) at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints on Forest Avenue, Jamestown, NY. Doug Foster will officiate. The family will be received in the Church one hour prior to the service. Burial will be in the Park Lawn Cemetery, Wesley, NY. Arrangements are entrusted to the VanRensselaer & Son FH, 14 Church Street, Randolph, NY. To leave a condolence log onto: www.vanrensselaerandsonfuneralhome.com

Visitation 10-11 service to follow on Thursday May 25, 2017 in the Church: Saturday, May 20, 2017 2:30 PM