Kathleen Christensen (K.C.) Benedict January 16, 1944 ~ April 16, 2022

Kathleen Christensen (K.C.) Benedict, San Juan County educator and friend to hundreds of San Juan County residents, passed away April 16, 2022 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.
KC was born in Preston, ID on January 16, 1944 to Louis Victor Christensen and Nelly Lou Benson Christensen.
In 1966 and 1967, K.C. served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Southwest British Mission. She married Roland Dean Benedict on August 26, 1967 in Pocatello, ID. They were later sealed in the Logan Temple.
They are the parents of five daughters, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
K.C. was passionate about the English Language Arts. She earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Idaho State University, a Master of Library Science from Brigham Young University, and a Masters of Arts in Rhetoric and Composition from Northern Arizona University.
She put her knowledge to work as a librarian at Whitehorse High in Montezuma Creek. In 1989, she accepted a position at the College of Eastern Utah San Juan Campus. She ended her career at the Utah State Library as the Book Mobile Coordinator.
KC was instrumental in initiating the concept of Blue Mountain Shadows. In 1983, she invited Janet Wilcox to attend the Fife Folklore Conference in Logan, UT. Both came back inspired to do something to help preserve the History of San Juan County and teamed up with Bob McPherson and LaVerne Tate.
A grant was approved, interviewers trained, and soon dozens of oral interviews were transcribed. Besides training the research team, KC also wrote many articles and served as editor of the Sesquicentennial issue of Pioneering Firsts #19.
No one envisioned that the seed planted in 1983 would eventually encompass nearly 40 years of historical research, videos, and 60 issues of the Blue Mountain Shadows magazine.
When KC retired in 2008, she was able to spend more time with grandchildren. She loved to take her grandchildren to movies, the library, swimming, hiking and many other places. She also loved traveling and visited exotic such places such as Athens, Israel and Egypt.
K.C. was the heart of her family. She carried on her mother’s tradition of big Sunday dinners. She brought the family together for holiday celebrations, birthdays and family reunions at Bear Lake, ID.
K.C. is survived by five daughters, Jane (Colby), Julie (Kasey), Beth (Steve), Kirsten (Jared) and Kyra (Nick) and four brothers, Dale (Cherry), Michael (Susan), David, and Dean.
She is preceded in death by her husband, mother, father, and three younger brothers.
Services were held on May 6, 2022 in Salt Lake City, UT. A Graveside memorial at the Blanding Cemetery will be held on June 11 at 2 p.m.