Katharine (Kay) Gassmann Schaub, 84, of Fremont, Calif. died Thursday February 23, 2006 at her daughter's home in Fremont, Calif., where she lived for 14 years and received hospice service for the last 20 months.

Kay was born on June 16, 1921 in Olney, the daughter of Zean and Gertrude Gassmann. She graduated from Olney Township High School. She worked at Olney Trust & Banking Company and attended University of Illinois, where she was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Colonel Ward K. Schaub, of the U.S. Marine Corps, whom she married in 1945, and her son, Eric Harwood Schaub.

She is survived by five daughters, Sara S. Trayser of Fremont, Calif., Ellen S. Meyer of Redmond, Wash., Elizabeth S. Rosenthal of West Hartford, Conn., Katharine S. Benghauser of Richmond, Va. and Margaret K. Montzingo of Clarksburg, Calif.; 11 grandchildren; one great-granddaughter and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Mrs. Schaub is also survived by three sister, Mary Stonecipher of Olney, Martha Kraeger of Chicago and Trudy Reynolds of Rockford, as well as her brother, Frank Gassmann of Pendleton, Ky.

She was preceded in death by her brothers, John Gassmann and Zean Gassmann, Jr; sisters, Barbara Harris and Elizabeth Vaughn; and brothers, George Gassmann and Henry Gassmann.

As a Marine Corps wife, Kay lived in many different places, including Guam, Virginia and North Carolina. After Colonel Schaub's retirement from the service, she moved to Syracuse, N.Y where her husband worked at Syracuse University. In 1976, she moved back to Olney and became the town's first substitute female rural mail carrier.

Kay later moved to Augusta, Maine to be closer to members of her family then living on the East Coast and later to California where two of her five daughters now reside.

She was buried with her husband, Colonel Ward K. Schaub, USMC in Arlington National Cemetery.

Published in Olney Daily Mail (IL)