November 2019
Katherine “Kitty” Ammenheuser, A157201, died July 24, 2019, at home in Beaumont, Texas. She was 79. She was the wife of Jim Ammenheuser, who from 1999 to 2003 served as FMCA national vice president, South Central Area.
“If you ever had an opportunity to meet her, it was a moment you’d never forget. She was a very vivacious lady,” said Darrell Gilliland, a friend of the Ammenheusers who preceded Jim as FMCA national vice president, South Central Area.
Soon after joining FMCA in 1992, Jim and Kitty began devoting their time and talent to the organization. “It was a team effort,” Jim said. The couple worked as seminar coordinators during FMCA’s 1994 international convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and they served as technical seminar volunteer captains at the 1998 convention in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The Ammenheusers joined or helped start a number of FMCA chapters, including Texas Outlaws, Cruisin’ Cajuns, Kansas Twisters, Gulf Coast Cruisers, Foretravel International, Frustrated Maestros – South Central, and FMCA Chapter: Habitat For Humanity®.
Jim said his wife was a friendly, outgoing person who played a role in the success of several Six-State rallies. For example, when the South Central Area celebrated the 30th anniversary of its Six-State Rally in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 2003, Kitty organized the ladies’ Red Hat Tea and style show, and she helped with the annual pet parade.
Before Jim and Kitty became motorhome owners, they were avid boaters. Both were members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. They met at a boat club in Beaumont when Kitty was having trouble loading her boat onto a trailer, and Jim stepped in to assist. They married in 1986.
Where boats couldn’t take them, their motorhome did. “We ran coast to coast and border to border with the motorhome,” Jim said.
In addition to her husband, Kitty is survived by two daughters; a son; a brother; a sister; her grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and Jim’s children and grandchildren.