To understand Kathy, one must first appreciate the roots of her faith, which begin with her grandmother, Myrtle Reynolds, a lifelong, committed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To ensure that each grandchild received a Church birth record, they were blessed during church services. Kathy’s mother, Pat, chose a different path from her mother’s, initially raising her children with strong values of honesty and hard work, but without the Church as their central influence. When Kathy was eight, Mae Towns, a local Church leader for children, invited eight-year-old Kathy and her twelve-year-old brother, Ron, to be baptized. (The Rons in the family have caused confusion. I’m the Ron that married Kathy, he’s the Ron that grew up with Kathy.) Pat agreed that they could be baptized if it was their choice. When taking missionary lessons, they both felt baptism was the direction they needed to choose. They each later became leaders in the Church and community, inspiring others with their faith. 17 years later Ron was serving as Mae Towns’ bishop. When you minister you don’t know who is out there to be reached.

Kathy became interested in joining the elementary school band. She had no prior musical exposure and picked out the flute as her instrument, and started with a flute borrowed from the school. She was taught fingering during the first few sessions with the band and simply took off from there. She never actually had music lessons. When she was 13, she got her first flute for Christmas. She talks about realizing that no one had ever played this flute before. She was the first. The Church youth group had committed to do a musical play at a retirement home. She would play her flute there as part of the play. The building was dark and the setting was bleak. A few residents went in to watch the play who were joined by many more once it started. They had a full house by the time they were finished, and were asked to do a second performance for those who couldn’t get into the first one. Kathy later wrote about this experience, won and award, and it was published in the Deseret News.

After a few years of dropping Kathy and Ron (Kathy’s brother, Ron) off at church, Pat began staying and was actively involved in the Church for the rest of her life. Seven years after his baptism, Ron served a full-time mission in Argentina. Just before leaving he gave Kathy the charge to have the family ready to be sealed in the temple when he returned two years later. Kathy’s immediate thought was, “Hasn’t he noticed that Dad is not a member of the Church yet?” Nonetheless, when Ron returned home, Dad had become a member of the Church and the family was temple ready.

Kathy was initially quite timid. Her mother worried that she would be too shy to speak up in class, harming her potential for college success. After starting at Cerritos Community College, she transferred to Brigham Young University (BYU), where she quickly made friends. Kathy and some friends took on the handle of “VV” (Vindow Viper) and covered the windshields of several cars with soap nightly, leaving the signature “VV” in the soap. After several months she was caught in the prank by some guys who staked out the parking lot. She and her group were punished by having to prepare dinners for the rest of the year for the guys who caught them. (The guys furnished the food.)

At BYU she first tried out for and was invited to join the elite school concert band. During her first semester she felt out of place among the other members who boasted about their musical mentors, and had the best of instruments. She was looked down upon because she had never actually taken music lessons. (This is an insert by Ron: They should have been impressed that she was sitting next to them in concert band, having never taken music lessons.) After the first semester, she went looking for other musical outlets.

Kathy then joined the award-winning BYU Marching Band, and performed across the nation. She also enrolled in a beginning recorder class at BYU, a course significantly beneath her skill level. From the outset, the instructor informed the class that grades would be based on individual improvement throughout the semester. Seizing this opportunity, Kathy chose to deliberately underperform, feigning a lack of musical knowledge to maximize her perceived progress. This strategy proved effective until the instructor observed her commanding presence in the concert band. He subsequently confronted her regarding her apparent disengagement in class. When she explained why she “sandbagged” her performance, he altered her grading criteria, stating her final grade would now depend on how much she helped her classmates improve.

She was taking a math class that was centered around what was termed “new math”. It was new to the education world in general, but she had been taking it in advanced math since fifth grade. She was bored. So, during class, she would sit at the desk practicing her flute music for band, fingering the music on a pencil. The teacher found this distracting. When he brought it to her attention she pointed out that she had been studying the subject material for years. He then told her that she no longer needed to show up for class, distracting him. But at year-end her grade would be whatever she got on the final. She quit showing and got an “A” in the class.