Catherine Louise Decker

Catherine Louise (Lindsey) Decker (1937 - 2016) Catherine Louise (Lindsey) Decker passed away Saturday, February 20 at the age of 78 due to complications from a stroke. Cathy was the oldest of three children of Joseph Thetford and Helen (Schoenfeld) Lindsey and was born at the end of the Great Depression years on August 18, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  During World War II, the family lived in Arlington Virginia and then moved to Ridley Park, PA. in 1946.  She had a vivid imagination and could play with marbles, bottle caps, and other small objects, gave them names and created personalities for them and used them to tell stories.  As the oldest child, and always as a good student, she helped her younger brothers with homework, played endless games of Monopoly, drilled them on memorizing all the states in the United States, their capitals and other state facts.  Her memory excelled as she could remember names of people she met and places she'd been with great detail.  Anytime facts for a particular event were needed, Cathy was a ready source for accurate information. She was a member of her high school choir. She performed as a player and singer in Gilbert & Sullivan's "Mikado," a comic opera in two acts.  She graduated from Ridley Township High School and worked as a Comptometer operator for the Sun Ray Drug company, the largest independent pharmacy organization in the Philadelphia area.  She enjoyed going to the "sea shore" in New Jersey with her friends to swim in the Atlantic Ocean.  She loved travelling with her family across the country by car during her youth to visit grandparents and cousins in Utah.  Her travels during her lifetime took her to all but ten of the fifty United States. In 1955, she attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where she met her future husband, Irving H. Decker, from Evanston, Wyoming. They were married August 14, 1957, in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They lived in Westwood Village in Los Angeles while her husband continued his education at UCLA and later in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah.  The small family lived for short time in Evanston, Wyoming where her oldest daughter Roselle was born.  The family later moved to Modesto, CA and finally settled in Visalia, CA. Her hobbies included sewing, cooking and family history research. She served faithfully and was active in her various church assignments including teacher and secretary in various church organizations for youth and adults.  She served as the Relief Society President looking after the needs of the ladies in her Visalia Ward (congregation).  She was influential in performing "patterning" activities, a treatment for children with neurologic impairments, when it was popular in the 1970's and 80's.  She was always a gracious hostess, looking after the needs of her guests until they were comfortable. She is survived by her husband, Irving, her four children, daughter Roselle Schledwitz (South Carolina), daughter Julie Harris (Wyoming), son Quentin (Beverly) Decker (California), daughter, Camille (Erik) Slayter (California), seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and her two brothers, Joseph Lindsey (California) and Richard Lindsey (Utah). Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, February 26 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 4000 W. Caldwell Ave., Visalia.