Kathryn Crosby “Kitty” Stanley, of Cataula, Georgia, passed on to be with the Lord at 11:10 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 26, 2018, following heart surgery at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia.

Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, in the Chapel of McMullen Funeral Home and Crematory, 3874 Gentian Blvd, Columbus, Georgia with the Rev. Frank Sledge and  the Rev. Andy Buchanon officiating. The family will receive friends one hour before the funeral services at the funeral home. Interment will be at Fort Mitchell National Cemetery.

Mrs. Stanley was born in Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia on Aug. 4, 1928, daughter of the late Wallace Leroy and Glenna Mae Jackson Crosby.

As a military wife, Ms. Kitty assumed command of the household while her husband served in Korea, Berlin and Vietnam. During Ms. Kitty’s time as an Army wife at Fort Riley, Kansas, she served as president of the Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC). She also recruited and started multiple other chapters of the PWOC, and other chapel circles while there. In 1964, when the U.S. Army instituted a prestigious annual award, “Protestant Woman of the Year,” Ms. Kitty was honored to be the very first recipient of this award. In the years after her husband’s retirement from the Army, Ms. Kitty served with the Baptist Women’s Missionary Union (BWMU) in churches in Columbus, Georgia, Abbeville, Alabama, and LaGrange, Georgia.

Kathryn, affectionately known as “Kitty” and “grandmother”, is survived by her beloved husband of 69 years, Retired Army Lt. Col Kenneth C. Stanley, her four sons, Ken Jr. (and Vicki) of Gulf Breeze, Florida; Wayne (Kimberly) of Cataula, Georgia; Kevin (Natalie) of Brentwood, Tennessee; Keith (Nancy) of Santa Fe, New Mexico; and her daughter Kaye (Butch) Dutto of Lincoln, California. She is also survived by two brothers, Leighton (Terri) Crosby of North Carolina; Bobby (Lillian) Crosby of Florida, and sister, Sandra Cumby of Georgia. Ms. Kitty was also blessed to have 12 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. As matriarch of the Crosby family and friend to so many others, Kitty is highly respected and dearly loved.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations to the Jeff Stanley Memorial Fund. You can find details at Give.cru.org/2864698.

Those who wish may sign the online guest registry at www.mcmullenfuneralhome.com.