Kathleen Marie Dawson
2025
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Share Kathleen Marie Dawson's obituary with others.
Invite friends and family to read the obituary and add memories.
Kathleen Marie Dawson passed away from ovarian cancer on July 8, 2025, her 72nd birthday. She died at her home in Oakland, California.
Kathleen was born and raised in Oakland and lived in the Bay Area, including Palo Alto and Santa Cruz, most of her life. She also lived in Evanston, Illinois, as a teenager.
Kathleen was a lover of birds, gardens, cats, music and dancing. Her beautiful plants on her balcony thrived under her care. She was also an accomplished cook: her Clay Pot Jalapeño Chicken alone deserved a Michelin star.
She followed a non-traditional career path when she was young, becoming a heavy equipment operator and working in golf course maintenance for almost a decade. Later she worked caring for children at Stanford's Day Care Center and then worked in data management for a variety of pharmaceutical companies.
Kathleen retired in 2016 and proceeded to have a wonderful life doing exactly what she wanted. This included playing ping pong, ballroom dancing (she especially loved the Milonga Tango), cleanups at Lake Merritt, and volunteering at the local senior center and the Oakland Rose Garden, as well as with an organization providing underdeveloped countries with medical supplies. She was extraordinarily kind, as well as gentle, generous, funny, and beloved by her friends, neighbors, and family. Overall she was simply a lovely person, and will be terribly missed by her loved ones.
Kathleen is survived by her half-sister Jennifer Dawson (Randy Bauer); niece Sara Bauer; cousins Lisa Brewer (Gary Edwards), Celia and Jake Brewer, Ruby Fox, Spencer Fox, and Dane Fox-McGraw; her aunt Lois Hughes and the Hughes cousins Jeff, Jimmy, Jacqui, Jodi and Jon; and a host of loving friends and neighbors in her community. She was predeceased by her mother, Corrine Goldstick; her father, David Dawson; her brother, Michael Dawson; and her aunt Katie Jean Nelson.
Donations may be made in Kathleen's memory to the Audubon Society.
Kathleen was born and raised in Oakland and lived in the Bay Area, including Palo Alto and Santa Cruz, most of her life. She also lived in Evanston, Illinois, as a teenager.
Kathleen was a lover of birds, gardens, cats, music and dancing. Her beautiful plants on her balcony thrived under her care. She was also an accomplished cook: her Clay Pot Jalapeño Chicken alone deserved a Michelin star.
She followed a non-traditional career path when she was young, becoming a heavy equipment operator and working in golf course maintenance for almost a decade. Later she worked caring for children at Stanford's Day Care Center and then worked in data management for a variety of pharmaceutical companies.
Kathleen retired in 2016 and proceeded to have a wonderful life doing exactly what she wanted. This included playing ping pong, ballroom dancing (she especially loved the Milonga Tango), cleanups at Lake Merritt, and volunteering at the local senior center and the Oakland Rose Garden, as well as with an organization providing underdeveloped countries with medical supplies. She was extraordinarily kind, as well as gentle, generous, funny, and beloved by her friends, neighbors, and family. Overall she was simply a lovely person, and will be terribly missed by her loved ones.
Kathleen is survived by her half-sister Jennifer Dawson (Randy Bauer); niece Sara Bauer; cousins Lisa Brewer (Gary Edwards), Celia and Jake Brewer, Ruby Fox, Spencer Fox, and Dane Fox-McGraw; her aunt Lois Hughes and the Hughes cousins Jeff, Jimmy, Jacqui, Jodi and Jon; and a host of loving friends and neighbors in her community. She was predeceased by her mother, Corrine Goldstick; her father, David Dawson; her brother, Michael Dawson; and her aunt Katie Jean Nelson.
Donations may be made in Kathleen's memory to the Audubon Society.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Kathleen Marie Dawson, please visit our flower store.
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