Kathie Courtice Basquin

Katie Basquin, born Kathie Joan Courtice, died on April 28, 2024 of pancreatic cancer. She leaves behind her loving husband of 59 years, Peter Basquin, a concert pianist and educator whom Katie supported with wisdom and grace, and page turning. They met at Carleton College in Minnesota  and moved to New York where they lived before coming to Collington in Mitchellville, Maryland in 2019. They spent summers in Maine even as she kept in close touch with her Trinity Wall St. NYC church community.

Katie was best known as a loving, generous, and long-devoted friend to the many people she met in high school, college, and later in her professional life as writer and office administrator. She blazed a trail for women in business, earning an Achievement Club award at Moore Business Forms, as one of only four saleswomen among its 2400-person strong sales force. She campaigned for women’s rights and helped publicize and promote the documentary The Philadelphia Eleven, a film about struggles of the first women ordained as Episcopal priests, now celebrating their fifty-year anniversary. 

Devotion to the written word shaped Katie’s career whether writing letters, as a ghost-writer, or as editor-in-chief of the music magazine Virtuoso. Perhaps the best known of her published work is Alzheimer’s Disease: A Guide for Families, written with Lenore Powell. When asked about her professional work, Katie joked, “I’m a ghost—you can’t see me!” She enjoyed knitting, attending numerous theater and musical performances, and swimming. 

 In addition to her husband Peter, she leaves behind her brother Richard James Courtice and Harold Ralph Courtice together with their wives, respectively Randy Courtice and Linda Courtice, their children and grandchildren, as well as Peter’s brother Paul Basquin, his wife Jennifer and their children and grandchild. During her final weeks as she was determined to “die well” her family and friends from Alaska to Florida, New York and Maryland came to say goodbye. Katie died in love and with love. 

 A service is planned at the Collington Life Care Auditorium, Saturday, June 1 at 2:00 PM. Donations in her honor are welcomed to Episcopal Relief and Development or Emily’s List.