A Tribute to Laura Katherine Jacobsen "Kathie," Health Center Chaplain for 23 Years

It's hard to know where to begin when I am thinking about Kathie. There are so many memories. l can picture her sitting outside the dining hall working on a jigsaw puzzle I can see her dressed in Dodger blue, cheering on her favorite team. I can see her singing alto in the choir at Knox. I can see her ministering to so many in the Health Center where she served as Chaplain. I can see her stroking her cat in her lovely apartment surrounded by her oil paintings and other remembrances of her years of missionary service in Egypt, and briefly in Thailand. Through it all a fascinating picture appears of a colorful life-one with sandy colors from Egypt, bright colors from her time teaching music to young women, and mellow colors from her years as Chaplain of the Health Center.
Kathie is a true ·'California girl." Born in Los Angeles, she spent her early life here. In 1944 she joined the Marines, her father accompanying her to the recruiting office. It was during her military service that her life took on new meaning. President Franklin Roosevelt had ordered New Testaments put in all the bases, and she began to read. A friend took her to church. It wasn't long before Kathie had given her life to be a follower of Jesus. She was baptized in the Brooklyn Heights Presbyterian Church in San Diego. "I was wearing my uniform, but I look my hat off," she says with a chuckle. "After accepting the Lord, things in my life just fell into place."
She was able to attend Whitworth College on the G.1. Bil!. Her piano teacher, Anne Carrel, was quite well-to-do and did a !ot of traveling. When she returned from one of her trips, she told Kathie, "I know exactly where yov·re going when you graduate-EGYPT!" She had visited a Girl's College in Cairo, and they needed a piano teacher. After an unhappy year at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, Kathie contacted the United Presbyterian Mission Board and was told the job was still available. She told her parents and off she went. (Jack and Mary Lou Lorimer, former residents, were on the same ship.) The next years were spent in Egypt. She remembers climbing one of the pyramids all the way to the top (with a guide), riding a camel named "Canada Dry," learning Arabic, teaching piano at The Emmanuel Center for Girls, producing an Arabic hymnal, starting the first handbell choir, beginning a friendship with Marjorie Dye, (another former MVGH resident), and taking care of lots of cats 'Word got around," she says. There were times she'd ask herself, '·How did Kathie Jacobsen get to be walking these streets in Egypt?'
The colors of her life took on a mellower hue when she retired to Monte Vista Grove Homes in 1989. She began volunteering by answering the phones in the afternoons at the Health Center. She had been asked to play the piano, but said, "No." Would she help out as a Chaplain? "No," was Kathie's response. But after a year, she had gotten acquainted with the nurses, and she had observed a "holy moment" when a friend had gone to be with the Lord, so when she was asked a year later if she would be a Chaplain, this time she said, "Yes!" Her life verse gave her strength. "O my soul, don't be discouraged! Don't be upsetl Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise Him for all that He will do. He is my help! He is my God!" Psalm 42:11
One of her most memorable moments as Chaplain was ministering to Carlton Booth, Kathy Bruner's father. (He was a well-known musician and evangelist who worked with Billy and Charles E. Fuller, and taught a! Fuller Seminary. As he was dying, Kathie began singing an old gospel hymn:

When all my labors and trials are o'er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,
Will through the ages be glory for me.
O that will be glory for me,
When by His grace I shall look on His face.
That will be glory, be glory for me.

''While I was singing," she said, "he had passed into the Lord's presence." (Kathy B adds that Kathie was also with her mother when she died in the Health Center in '96.)

Dear Lord, Thank you for the life of Kathie Jacobsen whom we grew to know and !ove. Thank you for the rainbow of blessings she gave to us! Thank you that she is now in your presence. singing vour praises with many who have gone before. In Jesus' name, Amen.

-Roberta Woodberry