Katherine L. “Kat” Wilkinson died Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, at Vicksburg Convalescent Home. She was 57.

A native of Vicksburg, Kat was a graduate of H.V. Cooper High School. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama at the University of Southern Mississippi.

A notable actress, Kat was the co-founder of Transact Theatre in Austin, Texas, the birthplace of “Greater Tuna.” She was a member of Magic Mirror Players in Taos, N.M., a theater company founded to promote original works. Kat did 17 original shows, including Fractured Fairy Tales, which brought joy to countless Taos school children.

In the early 1980s, Kat stayed busy on stage in dinner theaters in the New Orleans area.

In 1992, Kat co-founded Back Alley Players, a nonprofit theater company in Vicksburg. She directed and performed in staged works at Vicksburg Theatre Guild’s Parkside Playhouse. Her stage roles, as diverse as humanity, included the tart-tongued, card-playing Fonsia Dorsey in “The Gin Game,” the obsessively insane Lady Macbeth, the blue-blooded blabbermouth Queen Aggravain in “Once Upon a Mattress” and so many more. She also was the only actress to play the parts of both Nell and Old Kate in the long-running melodrama, “Gold in the Hills.”

At New Stage Theatre, the state’s only professional theater, Kat performed on stage with New Stage founder, Jane Reid Petty in “Lettuce and Lovage.” She performed for Eudora Welty in the New Stage production of “The Robber Bridegroom” and also acted in “Keely and Doo,” “The Miracle Worker,” “Big River” and “Dearly Departed.”

Also blessed with an amazing vocal talent, Kat and her lifelong performing partner, Joanne Ryan, gave birth to the popular Celtic duo, “Ladies in Waiting,” which delighted audiences throughout the United States. The two also co-founded “Best of Company” and “Arts-In-Action,” offering arts-based training for teachers, and student performances in the U.S. and abroad.

Kat co-wrote the song “Child of Light,” which was approved by the Pentagon in 24 hours and broadcast live by CNN to Saudi Arabia to the troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.

Kat was co-founder of Hospice Care Foundation, the first organization to offer hospice care in her hometown of Vicksburg. She served as volunteer and bereavement coordinator, planning and supervising delivery of all volunteer services.

She was very proud of her status as a Master Gardener. Like her father, she was a farmer of flowers. She was also an avid bird watcher, able to identify for visitors all the feathered visitors in her backyard. She had a soft spot in her heart for cats.

Kat was a member of Christ Episcopal Church.

Kat’s final audience was made up of her new friends at Vicksburg Convalescent Home, who had started calling Kat “the voice.”

“She loved people so much,” said Ryan.

She was preceded in death by her father, Richard Rucks Wilkinson.

She is survived by her lifetime performance partner and caregiver, Joanne A. Ryan; her mother, Elsie Wilkinson; her sister, Patricia Brogdon and husband, Tony; her nephews, Richard and Patrick Stanley; and step-nephews, Mathew and Jonathon Brogdon.

A funeral Mass will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church. Burial will follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery with Riles Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. Visitation will be from 1 p.m. until the hour of service Wednesday at the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Christ Episcopal Church, 1115 Main St., Vicksburg, MS 39183; Paws Rescue, P.O. Box 13, Redwood, MS 39156; or a charity of choice.