User:DeGraffJE/Sandbox2

Kathryn Anna (Endermann) DeGraff (1928-1999) was an American woman who lived during the 20th century. Known to her friends as "Carrie", Kathryn converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 23—an association that she cherished all her days, sharing her testimony with all around her and even serving as a full-time missionary in San José, California for a year. Kathryn married three times during her lifetime but spent much of her adulthood working long hours to provide for and raise her three children by herself. She went by the last name DeGraff, the last name of her second husband, during the latter part of her life and up until her death.

Birth and childhood
On 25 February 1928, Julius and Anna Endermann welcomed their second child, Kathryn Anna Endermann, into their family in Philadelphia, Pennsivlania.(citation to birth cert)

She graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls on 20 June 1945.

Early adulthood
Kathryn was baptized by Mark H. Beckstrom in Inglewood, California (Centinella Branch) on 20 November 1951, and confirmed the next day by Jonathan C. Welch.(citation certificate)

Mature adulthood and death


Kathryn passed away in a hotel room in San Diego, California, a day after attending the marriage of one of her grandsons in the LDS Temple there. Her corpse was returned to Arizona, and her grave, located in the Mesa City Cemetery, was dedicated by her eldest son.

Knowledgeable and full of faith
One of Kathryn's grandsons said the following: "Grandma Carrie was a bold and courageous woman. She was a voracious, uninterruptable reader, reading whatever she could get her hands on, no matter how noisy her environment. She was also incredibly knowledgeably concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the restoration of the LDS Church. One day after Seminary I told we learned about the United Order and asked if she had ever heard of it. "Why yes," she said, "Joseph Smith received a revelation in 1831..."—and on she went for the good part of an hour. She never cowered from sharing her testimony, talking with every bus operator with whom she came in contact during her weekly visit to the Mesa Arizona Temple. She would also bear her testimony every Fast Sunday, even though it took tremendous effort to prop up her crippled body and raise her voice from where she stood in the middle of the chapel."