Introduction
As mother of six children who attended Cape Girardeau schools between 1953 and 1981, Kathrine Porter Russell Lamkin, 1926-2009, was hostess and more to a substatial
cross section of Centralites, Notre Damers and Preps. On the following page one will find photographs of KPo from the Lamkin siblings genealogy site and a pdf file of her 1949 letter regarding the Cape tornado.Obituary
Kathrine Porter Russell Lamkin, one of Cape Girardeau's least politically correct residents, died Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, at Southeast Missouri Hospital, a few days before her 83rd birthday.
She was the daughter of Richard B. and Florence Hein Russell, whose ancestors settled here by 1797. Last year she and husband John T. "Jack" Lamkin celebrated 60 years of marriage at a series of events attended by all of her six children, 18 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
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Mrs. Lamkin's father, a lawyer in Cape Girardeau, died in 1932 from a World War I-related illness. She and her mother then joined her mother's family in St. Louis where she: graduated from John Burroughs's School (1944); bowed to the Veiled Prophet in 1946 and graduated Washington University in 1948.
She married Mr. Lamkin that same year, and returned to Cape Girardeau which has been her home since.
In addition to raising six challenging children, Po, as her friends knew her, served on many boards and clubs including: the DAR, Sesquicentennial Committee, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cape Girardeau Schools Review Committee, Glenn House, Jaycee Follies, Cape Girardeau Historical Society, PEO and Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary.
She war-whooped at Houck for the Parsley-era Indians; sweated summers on the Hill at the old CGCC pool; and set many an ambitious bidder in the several renowned bridge clubs of which she was a member. Lately she had been captain of the volunteer fire department at the couple's summer residence in Wik-a-te-wa, Mich.
The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Paul Kabo officiating. Burial will be in Cape County Memorial Park.
In lieu of flowers, please enjoy a fine dinner out and recall her warmly at her favorite table where she presided over so many events, as we forever will.
Happy trails to you until we meet again.
