Just two days ago, we found out that Kathryn Jones Faulkner had passed away during the night. Our condolences go out to her family, friends, and Ernie, her husband whom she married a little over a year ago. Kathryn quickly became a good friend of ours, and Ashley and I are very sad to lose her. What a wonderful, wonderful woman she was. In addition to being so genuinely and deeply caring, friendly, and welcoming, she possessed a youthful energy and humor that could set the world on fire.

I told her a few months ago, when we screened the Old Stories at TVN, that whenever I edit her footage, I can’t stop smiling and laughing. She just had a special, unassuming, life-abounding presence about her. Her smile was contagious and her laughter inspiring. Yesterday, after visiting with Ernie for a while, I continued working on a scene where she gives Ernie two chocolate chip cookie cakes for Valentine’s Day that she had made, one inscribed with the word “love”. I marveled as she walked with her true Texan gait into her closet to uncover the two cookie cakes that she had hidden there. She snickered, turned to us on camera, and, pausing for a moment to let us in on the secret before beckoning to Ernie, informed us in playful delight, “That’s a big cookie”. Classic Kathryn.

Every time we visited the newlyweds, Kathryn would take our hands and tell us how much both she and Ernie enjoyed spending time with us, smiles all around. I hope the following video, the latest addition to the Old Stories series, can speak even just a little to her beautiful humanity and grace, as she takes us back to her youngest years, when she was a feisty little troublemaker. We miss you, Kathryn.

characters, In Memory Of, Old Stories