Obituary of Katherine Kern Buckner

Katherine (Kit) Kern Buckner died at age 102, just 22 days shy of her 103rd birthday. She died at her home in Chapel Hill on April 12, 2017 after an extended illness. She was born in 1914 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to Paul Bentley and Lucy Campbell Kern. She spent her childhood in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas. She graduated from Randolph Macon Woman's College, and received her Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She married Frank Wooldridge Buckner, MD in Duke Chapel, Durham, North Carolina in 1938. She served for 10 years as the Director of Family Counseling Services in Durham, North Carolina, and later as a Clinical Psychologist at the Duke University Medical Center, and as a counselor in private practice at Aqueduct Conference Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was a member of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill. She is fondly remembered as a compassionate and loving mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She never once in her long life failed to be there for her children. She was the soul of kindness. She is survived by her four children and their spouses, Bates Buckner of Chapel Hill, Jansen and Teddi Buckner of Carlsbad, California, Kern Buckner and Gretchen Frey of Littleton, Colorado, Frank and Diane Buckner of Montgomery, Alabama, by her former daughters in law, Rebecca Buckner and Janeen Ledford, by her twelve grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and by her dear friend Charles Green of Wilmington, NC who endowed a lecture series in her name at UNC-Wilmington. Also especially dear to her was her lifelong friend, Anna Bowe Wells of Martinsville, Va. She was predeceased by her husband, Frank Wooldridge Buckner, MD, her brother, John Campbell Kern, and her sister Virginia Kern Aldridge. The family is deeply grateful for the wonderful care provided in the last year of her life by her outstanding care team: Ebony Durham, Wanda Dukes, Virginia Clark, Sherrie Clark, Joy Dixon, Mary Horton, Tiffany Mitchell and Laverne Candelori. A funeral service will be held at University United Methodist Church, 150 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 2:00 PM with the Rev. Carl King officiating. Memorial contributions may be made in her memory to Duke Home Care & Hospice or to University United Methodist Church. Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill is serving the Buckner family. Online condolences may be offered at www.walkersfuneralservice.com.