Kathryn Ragan

(Mary) Kathryn Brady Ragan

Kathryn Brady (Chilson) Ragan, died Monday September 2, 2024, after a long illness. She was 88. Born November 11, 1935 in Little Rock, AR to James B. Brady and Marion I. Peacock, Kathryn was the second of four children. Growing up in Little Rock, Kathryn was a member of Holy Souls Parish, taught swimming at the YWCA, and attended Girl Scout summer camp, all of which stayed with her throughout her entire life. She graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s high school in 1953, and then attended Little Rock Junior College, graduating with honors in 1955. She then attended the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she studied elementary education and history, and spent many weekends calling the Hogs, a skill she would work hard to pass down to her children. She graduated with a BSE with honors in 1957.

After moving to St. Louis, Kathryn worked as a teacher in the Springboard to Learning program in the St. Louis City School System in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Kathryn was extremely active in the civil rights movement and was a lifelong advocate for equality and civil rights, working on all elections from local school boards to the presidency. She was active in her children’s lives, from working on the PTA and as a room mother who baked and iced thousands of sugar cookies, to being a Girl Scout troop leader and Cookie Mother. She became a legal secretary in the late 1970’s and worked for several law firms in the St. Louis area until she returned to Arkansas to care for her parents. In Little Rock she also returned to her lifelong love of books and spent her final working years as the acquisitions assistant for the Bowen School of Law Library of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

Kathryn loved her family and friends and strangers who would quickly become friends. She was quick to smile and laugh and usually had a clever comment at the ready. She was interested in everyone she met and was happy to discuss good barbeque, especially The Shack, or Razorback football or basketball, with all. She loved watching the Razorbacks win and could Wooo, Pig! Sooie! with the best. She was extremely proud of her Irish heritage and her several trips “home” as she thought of Ireland, to visit her cousins, were some of her happiest memoires. She was an excellent crafter and was especially fond of knitting intricate Irish sweater patterns. And on occasion, she could be found visiting an Irish pub in St. Louis or Little Rock for good corned beef and good Irish music. She was an obsessive reader and was proud to have had some of her own work, mostly memories of family and Little Rock, published in “Quills and Pixels,” the magazine of the University of Arkansas Little Rock’s Writer’s Network.

Preceding her in death were her parents, James and Marion Brady, and her brother, William B. Brady. She is survived by her children, daughters Sha’an Chilson and Erin Chilson, and son, Brian Chilson, her grandchildren, Olivia Frentzel, Alex Rapp, Brady Chilson, and Chase Perabo, her great-grandchildren, Caden Rapp, and Hailey, Wyatt, and Jackson Frentzel, and her beloved sisters Marilyn Hardman of Broomfield, Colorado and Connie Brady of Houston, TX, as well as her six amazing nieces and nephews.

A memorial will be held in Little Rock on June 30th at 11:00 a.m. at Smith Little Rock Funeral Home, 8801 Knoedl Court, Little Rock, AR 72205

Burial will be private.