We heard from Kathy's husband, Tony Mikkelson, that Kathy passed away in Pomona on January 4, 2024. 

Kathy and Tony lived in Pomona. Kathy retired after working in the financial industry. 

Tony reports that Kathy had experienced a variety of cancers, but actually died of a heart attack.

Kathleen Denise Eckerson Mikkelson
October 12, 1953 to January 4, 2024
Pomona, CA

My wife Kathy passed away at Pomona Valley Hospital with me at her side. We would have been married 49 years on the 26th of January.

Born Kathleen Denise Eckerson she lived all her life in Pomona. She was born at Park Avenue Hospital which was located about 250 yards of the home we lived in for all are married life. This home was later determined to be built by one of Kathy’s distant relatives. Growing up Kathy was a Blue Bird in the Campfire Girls, later on she attended Pomona High School and Cal Poly Pomona, where we met at the cafeteria.

In 1974 Kathy started a 30-year career in Financial Service Management in both Retail Operations and Consumer/Real Estate Lending. While working for Household Finance, Household Bank and Home Savings she worked her way up from Branch Manager to Vice-President Cluster Manager and then Vice-President of Consumer/Real Estate Lending. After WaMu took over Home Savings she went on to work for what is now Schools First FCU and then HSBC. She met or exceeded work goals. The only down-side was being robbed at her branches several times including twice in one day.

Kathy loved her vacation time in Hawaii on the island of Kauai near Lihue, and in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Local fun weekends were spent at the Monterey wine festival, Renaissance Pleasure Fair in Agoura Hills, Devore and Irwindale, and the LA county fair in Pomona.

Kathy was a cat lover all her life. Once during a conversation before we were married, she jokingly said “if I can’t have kids, then I want cats”. Thus, Kathy was to morph into a Crazy Cat Lady. She and I had up to 8 cats for many years, most indoors. They were primarily rescues from work and those that wandered in our yard. Except for not having a tattoo, she has pictures and figurines of cats all over the house and on things like pillows, blouse tops, coffee mugs and artistic works.

After retirement Kathy became more interested in cooking. There were cookbooks, cooking magazines and cooking shows. While doing new dishes she focused more on experimenting on known recipes with the seasonings and spices, and sometimes an ingredient or two. There were TV shows which had several cooks on and each one would cook a dish for the others, anything from a snack to breakfast and dinner. Then there were the competition shows were everybody, judges and contestants were serious to those while serious had funny twists tied into the contest. I would kid her that I would do all the cleanup if she would prepare and cook dinner in 30 minutes.

To Kathy, it was always important to “just be nice” and to be a friend in any way she felt she could, whether helping out coworkers or just going about her daily life. She made connections lasting years with people and was usually the one making sure to maintain the contact. She had a friend from grade school that she continued to write letters to. When that friend lost touch due to moving for the military Kathy found her brother and was able to get back in touch. Another example, even though she had no children, she kept in contact with the nieces of one of her friends for over 25 years, even up to the last months of her life when one of the girls got married early in the year. When one thinks of Kathy the main feeling that comes to mind is that she was a very kind and nice person. She will be missed by all that knew her

I go through the house and realize that you are the house. I miss you KitKat