Catherine Lauritsen

Catherine Anne (Grollman) Lauritsen passed away on January 18, 2025 at the age of 86, at Hospice Spokane. 

Private burial will be at Sunset Memorial Cemetery in Montevideo.

She was born on December 6, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Dr. Arthur and Anna Costello Grollman. When she was 6 years old, the family moved to Dallas, Texas, where her father was a research doctor at the University of Texas Medical School. She received her BA from the University of Dallas and her MA from SMU. She taught at Inkster High School in Detroit, Michigan, and then went on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills to get her PhD in Modern American History. On graduation, she taught at Winona State College in Winona, Minnesota, now called Winona State University. It was there she met her future husband, Fred Lauritsen. After their marriage in 1968, they moved to Iowa City, Iowa, where Fred was employed at the University of Iowa. It was there that their son, Arthur, was born. Fred moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1969, where Fred worked at EWU. Their daughter, Felicia, was born in 1971. They moved to Cheney and lived in the same house for 52 years until her passing. She is remembered for her dedication to social justice, her love of reading, her love for teaching, volunteer work, including volunteer work at the library, and her love of opera and the fine arts, and her dedication to her happy and healthy five grandchildren. She was one of the founding members of the library group that helped build the new Cheney library that sits across from the grain elevator on 1st Street.

She was preceded in death by her two siblings, Dr. Arthur Patrick Grollman and Dr. Evelyn Wolff, her brother-in-law, Eugene Lauritsen; and her sister-in-law, Melinda Gort.

She is survived by Corky (Bev) Lauritsen and Sheldon Lauritsen; her son, Arthur (Chiaki) and her granddaughters, Anne and Corky; and her daughter, Felicia (Richard Santa Ana) and her three grandchildren, Carlos, Nicolas, and Emily; and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins. 

She passed on her love of the arts, reading, her love of friends, and participation in community life to her children.

The family asks that donations be made to Cheney Friends of the Library, the Cheney Depot Society, or the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane. 

A celebration of life for Catherine Anne Lauritsen will be held Saturday, February 1st at 1:00 PM, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 625 C St., Cheney, WA 99004