Katherine Douglass, 1934–2024

Katherine Douglass, the loving but stern grandmother known as Mom Douglass to generations of children she cared for in her Philadelphia home, died December 30 of septic shock after suffering from dementia for eight years. She was 90.

She was born Katherine Shenoster April 19, 1934, in Sandersville, Georgia, to Bobby Lee Shenoster and Mattie Cheeves Shenoster Johnson. She lived on a plantation for the first ten years of her life. Her father was killed in a car accident when she was two, and her mom went North looking for work and a better life. Young Katherine lived with her grandmother and her older sister, Zelma, and grew up helping with chores on the farm. Though they lived humbly with no electricity and no indoor bathroom, Katherine was ladylike and demure, having developed what would be a lifelong preference for neatness.

Katherine accepted Christ at an early age and was baptized at Poplar Spring Baptist Church in Sandersville. Katherine and her sister moved to Philadelphia to be with their mother when Katherine was ten. There, she joined the Greater St. Matthew Independent Church (AME), where she was a lifelong member. For three years, she played with the Mahlon Lewis Pantherettes, an all-girls church basketball team. She excelled at the sport.

As the newly reunited family adjusted to life in Philadelphia, the story goes that Katherine was teased by other children because she didn’t know how to eat an ice cream cone, having never had the dessert while living on the farm. Katherine attended John Barry Elementary School, William H. Shoemaker Junior High, and was a proud graduate of the January 1953 class of Overbrook High School.

Katherine then attended the Harris School for Business in Philadelphia for two years, learning shorthand and other secretarial skills. She held many positions, working as a cashier at a restaurant, at the Davis driving school, for Robert Hall Clothes, and at Rosen Brothers Plumbing. While Katherine was working at the front desk at Rosen Brothers, an outgoing young postal worker came in for some work to be done. He glanced at her hand. “I don’t see any rings on that,” he quipped.

Three months later, February 7, 1959, Katherine and John B. Douglass went to a Justice of the Peace in Elkton, Maryland, a town known as a place to get married quickly (Katherine had been unable to get a weekday off of her job to get a blood test).

In their early marriage, the young couple, Katherine, now a home-maker while John was postal supervisor, traveled somewhere every weekend. They took trips to New York City or Atlantic City or Lawnside, New Jersey. They enjoyed life as a couple before having children. Their daughter, Carol Lynne, was born in 1962, followed by a son, John Jr., in 1965.

Katherine couldn’t afford daycare for two young children, so she started a state-licensed daycare in the basement of her row house, a business that thrived for fifty years. First, it was just neighborhood children, and then the business gained popularity, and referrals came from throughout Philadelphia. Second and third generations of children knew Mom Douglass’s compassionate care. There were activities, games, walks in the park. As a caregiver, Katherine braided the little girls’ hair. She made sure each child had a Christmas present. She was quiet but authoritative. Sometimes all it took was a look and a misbehaving child would fall in line. You didn’t want to disappoint her.

Meanwhile, Katherine was raising her own children, taking them to piano lessons, dance lessons, football practice. The family ate dinner together every night, talking about their days. Katherine had learned how to cook well from her grandmother on the farm. Some of her specialties were chicken salad and from-scratch peach cobbler. Her house was always tidy, despite being filled with children. You knew to put things back where you found them. Again, you didn’t want to disappoint her.

John Sr. suffered a stroke in 1992, and Katherine cared for him in their home. He died in 2006.

Katherine was a homebody. She liked to listen to Motown in the kitchen while she made dinner. She loved Lana Turner in “Imitation of Life.” She liked nice things like French provincial furniture. She had a white couch and burgundy fireside chairs. She loved Nordstrom, Saks, and Bloomingdales, buying classic clothing pieces you could wear forever.

Her four grandkids called her Mom-mom and her two nephews called her Aunt Kitty, and she was much beloved by them.

Katherine retired as Mom Douglass in 2016. When she got sick, her daughter and son-in-law cared for her. She received letters and visits from the many children she’d cared for through the years. The last child she cared for visited her in the hospital before she died.

Katherine is survived by her two children, Carol (Jay Jamison) Douglass and John Douglass Jr.; four grandchildren, Shaun, Chayna, Chanelle, and Nicole; three nephews, Anthony (Linda) McLean, Jesse (Charlotte) McLean Jr., and Oscar (Ana) Dumas; one niece, Pat (Derrick) Hickson; one sister-in-law, Jadene Dumas; a devoted god-daughter, Michelle D. Smith; and a host of other relatives and friends. Katherine was preceded in death by her parents, Bobby Lee Shenoster and Mattie Cheeves Shenoster Johnson; her sister, Zelma McLean, who died in 2001; and her husband, John B. Douglass Sr, who died in 2006.

A service will be held Friday, January 10, at West Laurel Hill Cemetery at 10 am, with a viewing from 9:30–10 am.