Kathleen "Katie" Leilani Nelson

Kathleen “Katie” Leilani Nelson passed on February 27, 2023 at her home at the age of 72.  A memorial service will be conducted for her on Saturday, March 4, 2023 at Walker Funeral Home (410 Medical Arts Ct.) beginning at 1:30pm, with a time of fellowship and refreshments immediately following. Katie was raised in the Territory of Hawaii before it was an official state of the United States.  She was the oldest of 6 children in the Nelson family, born to James Nelson and Mary Lynch.  She often talked about how as a child she would run through the high tropical grasses and wait for the afternoon rain showers. She recalled how colorful and beautiful the flowers were. There was a Polio outbreak at that time in Hawaii. Katie’s mother was a nurse working in the Navy base hospital and had contracted the disease. Katie remembers going to visit her mother while she was in an iron lung. After her mother regained her health, the family decided to move to a dryer climate and moved to Denver Colorado. They eventually settled in Colorado Springs. Katie graduated Roy J. Wasson High School in June of 1969. She was a good student and enjoyed studying history, politics and literature.  She later attended Western State College in Colorado with a focus on Business.  In March of 1983, Katie married William Brashaber, a union that bore two children, Erin John Brashaber and Brett William Brashaber, and two grandchildren, Alexis and Keara. Katie worked for several years in the Insurance industry, and enjoyed spending her free time in the great outdoors, camping with her family in the mountains of Colorado Springs, or escaping to Yellowstone for a getaway. She was a dog lover and had many dogs in her time.  She liked hats, especially if they were flashy and garnered attention, another favorite pastime of hers. She also had an affinity for Betty Boop, Charlie Brown, Shirley Temple and Ziggy. Having a high-pitched voice, she did a pretty cute Betty Boop impersonation. Anyone who knows her knows Katie was not a good driver…She had a lead foot and could curl your hair with her driving. The family thinks it was a sadistic way to get back at each family member that had crossed her in the recent past. Actually, she enjoyed a good scare and used her driving tactics to help facilitate that, all the while laughing hysterically with the music blaring loudly, relying on her mantra regarding other traffic: “They’ll stop!” It’s more than ironic that she went to work in the car insurance industry. Please join us in celebrating a life well lived, with friends and family and stories and smiles, as we pay tribute to someone we will cherish and miss dearly. Memorials and condolences may be sent of care of Gillette Memorial Chapel 210 West 5^th Street, Gillette, WY 82716. Condolences may also be expressed at www.gillettememorialchapel.com