Kathryn Crane Shultes started her career at the Pentagon and ended as a book binder. She died at The Atrium Health Center in Red Bank, New Jersey on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. She was 97.

She was born Catherine Ellen Crane on June 6, 1923 in Port Jervis, New York to the late Calvin Van Etten Crane and Mary Asenath Skinner Crane at the Skinner Homestead, site of the birth of her maternal grandfather John in 1863 and his twin daughters, Mary Asenath and Anna Van Etten, in 1893.

She settled in New Jersey with her husband and raised a family in Little Silver, spent 30 years of retirement in her husband's homeland of East Berne, and then together, they moved back to Red Bank.

After high school, where she changed her name to Kathryn and preferred “Kathy,” she graduated from Miss Dayton’s Business Courses and was immediately recruited to work at the newly-opened Pentagon in 1941.

Working in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, she met the man who would be her husband: Charles Keith Shultes; they married in 1944. After marriage, she worked in her children’s grade school as secretary, in the back office support in a bank, and apprenticed for seven years to become an independent book binder specializing in antique book repair.

During their retirement years, Keith and Kathy Shultes enjoyed living close to Keith’s siblings and their families in the Berne area. Mrs. Shultes loved traveling on Hilltowns Senior Center trips, teaching bridge to new players, antiquing, and supporting the First Reformed Church of Berne.

“She’ll be remembered for her passion for visual arts, her interest in people, her delight in parties, her recent paintings, and her love of family,” her family wrote in a tribute.

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 Kathryn Crane Shultes is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Charles Lingel; by her son and daughter-in-law, Scot Shultes and Leona Tenebruso-Shultes; by granddaughters, Brandy, Suzanne (and her husband, Dennis Early), and Kathryn; and great-grandchildren, Giselle, Hayden, Tristan, Kamalani, and Lillian.

Her parents died before her, as did her husband of 64 years; and her oldest son, James Austin Shultes, who is survived by his wife, Tina Hardy Shultes, his previous wife, Pamela Gordon Shultes, their daughter and grandchildren.

All arrangements are private.

Memorial messages may be left at www.altamontenterprise.com/milestones.

Memorial contributions may be made to your local food bank.