Lasting Memories

Kristine Elizabeth Mahood
July 7, 1952-June 27, 2017
Olympia, Washington
Submitted by Eric Wenburg

Kristine Mahood, 64, 25-year resident of Palo Alto, died June 27, 2017.

She was born July 7, 1952, in Palo Alto, California. She attended Washington State University, Pullman, in History; University of California, Davis, earning a Bachelor's degree in English; and San Jose State University, earning a Master of Library Science degree.

She worked at Palo Alto City Library, Rowan County Library in Salisbury, North Carolina, and Timberland Regional Library in Olympia, Washington, retiring in 2016. Her books are: The Mosher Survey: Sexual Attitudes of Forty-Five Victorian Women (co-edited with James Mahood, May 1980), A Passion for Print: Promoting Reading and Books to Teens (written March 2006), and Booktalking with Teens (written March 2010).

Devoted wife to James Mahood of Olympia, Washington, whom she married July 2, 1989, loving sister to Eric Wenburg of Mountain View, California, writer with pen and keyboard, voracious reader, cartoonist, dressmaker, quilter, knitter, champion for young adult readers, fiercely intelligent and productive, Kristine also had an impish sense of humor and satire, publishing letter-sized daily editions of "The News" and "The Snooze" and often referring to the "Demoocows" and the "Repuddleducks" in her copious letters.

Baptized and confirmed an Episcopalian in 1984, her spiritual quest culminated in her joining the Roman Catholic Church in 2010 whereby she came to enjoy church music in straightforward hymns — for example, "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" — and the gospel style — for example, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand". She also found inspiration in the operas of the Romantic style — Verdi, Wagner, Donizetti, Gounod — and had favorite singers such as Alfredo Kraus, Sherrill Milnes, René Pape, and Spas Wenkoff.

Her father Robert Wenburg and mother Elizabeth Wenburg preceded her in death in 2001 and 2010.