Anne Kathryn "Kathy" Hairgrove

It is with great sadness that we announce that Anne Kathryn (Kathy) Mitchell Hairgrove, 74, of Flatonia, Texas passed away at Willows at Leander Assisted Living & Memory Care on Monday, June 30, 2025.

Kathy was born to George W. Mitchell and Aline Marie Rank Mitchell on Jan. 2, 1951. Her family moved several times during her formative years; from Texas to Louisiana to Maryland to New York to Arizona. While in school, she discovered a love for creating art; becoming highly proficient in drawing, painting, sculpting with clay, and working with paper mache. Also during that time, she really took to a home economics class, which kickstarted her skills in sewing and cooking.

On Dec. 20, 1975, Kathy married her soulmate Jeffery (Jeff) Marshall Hairgrove. Throughout their nearly 50 years of marriage (until Jeff’s passing on Aug. 26, 2024), they were truly equal partners in all they did and were each other's best friend. Their union produced two children, Travis Mitchell Hairgrove on Oct. 28, 1976 and Juston Mathew Hairgrove on Dec. 11, 1978 – who were mostly raised in Alice, Texas; where Jeff worked as foreman at J-Bar 4 Beefmaster cattle ranch.

As a mother, Kathy encouraged her sons’ imaginations, sharing with them her love of fantasy when she read them “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” while they were still in lower elementary school. She also indulged them with her creative talents, with projects that included sewing custom costumes for Halloween and school plays and making “Darth Vader cakes.” However, in addition to all the fun, Kathy also took a very serious interest in her kids’ education, taking them to the library multiple times per week and sometimes going so far as to assign homework over the summer (usually just one worksheet a day), to make sure they didn’t lose ground in school.

Over the course of her years in Alice, Kathy gradually took her creativity into a more entrepreneurial direction, making a variety of items ranging from heavy duty, “play-ready” stuffed animals to French bread to handmade Christmas decorations, which she sold at farmers markets and consignment stores in the Jim Wells County/Kleberg County area. Years later, as she and Jeff were preparing to retire from ranch life, they fell in love with a 120-year-old stone barn they discovered in Flatonia, Texas and decided to make it their new home as well as a shop, where she could make and sell items full-time and he could delve deeper into his passion for leather work.

Over the 24 years they lived in Flatonia, Kathy and Jeff made many friends and became known for their weekly get-togethers, where folks were welcome to stop by for a burger, a beer and a chat. In addition to being gregarious hosts, the two became highly active members of the local community. When Jeff was elected to city council in 2006 and as mayor in 2008, Kathy developed a nearly encyclopedic memory of how almost every piece of property was zoned in the close-knit 1.69-square-mile town, making her a valuable repository of useful information.

Sadly, in her final years, Kathy was beset with liver and kidney problems and ultimately Alzheimer’s disease, but bravely faced it all with an unflappable strength and resolve, and refused to “go gentle into the good night.”

Kathy is survived by her sons, Juston’s wife Kimberly Rae Sasser; her brother Paul R. (Rick) Mitchell and his wife Karen; her nieces and nephews Kari Thomson and Jennifer, David and Eric Mitchell; her grand-nieces and grand-nephews Alexandra, Olivia and Connor Thomson; Alaina, Jackson and Noa Mitchell, and Lily Gabriels; one great-grand-niece Kira Gates; as well as a host of other relatives, many of whom Kathy and Jeff met while doing genealogical research.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband.

A graveside service in celebration of Kathy's life is planned for Friday, Aug. 1 at 3pm at Oak Hill Cemetery in Flatonia.