Corbin’s Katherine Hill on her wedding day, 1960
This fall, Katherine Hill (formerly Katherine Masters) will turn 102-years-old. That fact alone is impressive enough, but it is especially inspiring when considering the health-related struggles that she has faced just in the past couple of years.
“I was in the hospital in Lexington for about a year,” Hill recently shared.
The ordeal began one night when she was washing her face before bed. “I saw this place on my face, and I thought, ‘What is that?’” she recalled.
Hill informed her son, Bruce, of the troubling discovery, and the very next day they found themselves in a doctor’s office. They were referred to another doctor in Somerset, and then to a skin cancer specialist that she had been to previously. That led to yet another appointment with a specialist at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. This doctor made the decision to call in a colleague who is an expert in blood-related diseases.
The call ultimately ended up saving Hill’s life, as it was determined that she had cancer, and that the cancer had entered her bloodstream. It was a scary diagnosis, and was going to be very risky to treat, especially at her advanced age.
“The doctor said that it was one of the worst types of cancer to get,” Hill said.
The next year-or-so of Hill’s life was spent in Lexington, receiving care from doctors determined to save her life. She recalls a comment from one of her doctors about her being one of the best patients they had ever seen, not complaining throughout the many difficult exams and treatments that she had to undergo.
Still, this was a trying time for Hill, who at one point grew despondent and asked her son to just take her home. He encouraged her to tough it out, though, and to do what needed to be done to beat the cancer, which she eventually did.
“I just had to push through,” Hill said to sum up her difficult experience.
Hill has been back home in Corbin for about a year now, receiving care locally from doctors at Baptist Health. She said that she doesn’t particularly enjoy the amount of medication that she has to take on a daily basis, but she is lucky to have her faithful son there with her to make sure that she is staying on track with her doctors’ orders.
Memories of how things were
Hill has lived in Corbin her entire life. She says that she lived through the Great Depression, but didn’t suffer thanks mostly to her father, who managed to keep a job with the railroad for 30 years.
“He always kept us, and most of the relatives, with something to eat,” Hill said of her hard-working father.
Hill said she was always an accomplished student, and at the age of 16 she was told that her classwork was at a level that would allow her to only attend school for half a day. She jumped at this opportunity, immediately going to the old Triplett’s Grocery Store and inquiring about getting a job to fill her newfound free time.
“It was a big store that had a dry goods section,” Hill said. “I walked in there after school and said I wanted to put in my application. They said ‘Katherine, you’ve got the job. Just get ready to come in to work tomorrow.’”
That was the beginning of a long and rewarding career in retail for Hill, who spent the next few decades of her life working in various stores in the local area.
Hill married in 1960. Her marriage announcement in the newspaper read, “Miss Katherine Masters, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.E. Masters, and Mr. Glen Hill, son of Mrs. R.E. Hill and the late Mr. Hill, all of this city, exchanged vows Sunday, June 5, at the Seventeenth Street Christian Church at half-past twelve noon.”
The announcement went on to say, “After a wedding trip to Lake Cumberland, the Hills are making their home at Chestnut Street in Corbin. Mrs. Hill is a graduate of Corbin High School, and is employed at Piggly Wiggly Super Market in Corbin. Mr. Hill is also a graduate of Corbin High School and is owner-operator of the Hill Motor Company in Corbin.”
17th Street Christian Church
“My momma took me there when I was a baby,” Hill said of her home church in Corbin. “There was six of us kids, and she got us ready every Sunday morning and took us to church. She would see that we were wherever we needed to be.”
Hill said she remembers going to her very first Sunday School class at 17th Street, an experience that made her nervous at the time because she did not like being separated from her mother. She soon realized that there was nothing to be afraid of, however.
“It was a church where everybody knew everybody else, and people were real friendly,” Hill said. “It is just a good family church. A lot of those are gone now.”
Hill still attends services at 17th Street on occasion, but mobility issues keep her home most of the time these days. Over her many years of membership, she has contributed in several different ways, from volunteering in the kitchen, to teaching Sunday School classes, to simply being a friendly face that folks could count on to help lift their spirits.
Hill discussing one of her current favorite hobbies – coloring.
Katherine and Molly
These days, Hill finds joy in certain activities around the house. Among those are coloring the intricate illustrations that can be found inside special coloring books made for adults. She also enjoys spending lots of quality time with her little four-legged friend, named Molly.
“Wherever I am, she’s right there,” Hill said of Molly, who is also getting on in years herself.
Hill was devastated many years ago when another dog of hers was sadly killed in the road just outside of her home in Corbin. After a few days of grieving, her son came up with an idea that would surely cheer her up.
“It was the ugliest thing you ever seen,” Hill said of the new little dog that her son brought home one day. “I said ‘Bruce, what have you brought in here? We just don’t need it.’”
Bruce insisted that Hill would soon grow to love the dog, and sure enough, she became a cherished companion that has stayed by Hill’s side for the past 15 years.
Molly, who was named after the daughter that Hill never had, was found on the roadside all those years ago. It is believed that she had been hit by a vehicle, and had then walked a long distance in an attempt to find someone who could provide some help. She was sitting in the lap of the front desk clerk when Hill’s son went to the animal shelter to look for a new dog for his mother, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The dog soon to be known as Molly came home to the Hill residence on Chestnut Street, and has lived a charmed life ever since.
“Now, everywhere we go people want to know how Molly is,” Hill said.
A full life
While Hill is still looking forward to many more days with her son, and Molly, and she intends to fill up plenty more coloring book pages, she seems happy with the life that she has lived up to this point. She has faced many challenges, but thanks largely to her strong faith in God, she has successfully fought through them all.
“I’ve lived a full life,” Hill said about her experiences. Truly, it has been a life that has touched many, many others along the way.
