Obituary for Katherine Duncum

Katherine Headman Duncum

April 4, 1940 — April 19, 2024

Katherine Duncum, 84, of Midwest City, OK went to be with the Lord on Friday, April 19, 2024, at William Newton Memorial Hospital in Winfield, KS.

Katherine was born to Hoskie Woody and Inez Big Thumb on the top of Black Mesa, AZ on April 4, 1940. She is a member of the Navajo (Dine’) Tribe, and her clan was Deeshchii’ne. She grew up on the Navajo Reservation in the Monument Valley and Narrow Canyon area. Katherine attended Tuba City Public Schools, then continued high school at the Nazarene Bible School in Albuquerque, NM. She followed her dream of education and received her bachelor’s in education, Her Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California. She also studied at the San Francisco School of Theology. In addition, she did research for UC Davis Department of Cultural Anthropology, and helped transcribe archival footage of the first recorded images of the Dine’ (Navajo) ceremony called the “Red Ant Way”. Her work helped restore an ancient ceremony for the Dine’ Tribe.

She primarily taught in the Navajo Nation Boarding school system at the Shonto Boarding School and Kayenta Boarding School. She retired after 25 years and was an inspiration to all of the students, as this was heart and soul.

In 1958, Katherine met Louis Headman and later, they married and live their life in the Church and raised three wonderful children. Kats hobbies were sewing, making quilts, gardening, and traveling. She loved the outdoors and tending to her garden. Later in life, she remarried to Clyde R. Duncum. Both were educators and ran the only cattery on the Navajo Nation called Nessdoi’ Cattery. They bred award winning, grand champion, Havana Brown cats from their cattery in Kayenta, AZ.

Katherine is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Clyde Duncum, daughter-in-law, Joann Headman, son-in-law Adelbert Steeprock Jr., and a grandson-in-law, JJ Payne.

Kat leaves behind Louis Headman, the father of her three wonderful children, of Ponca City. Her sons Vincent Headman of Phoenix, AZ, and her youngest son Tyrone Headman of Santa Fe, NM and her daughter Lavonne Headman Steeprock of Midwest City, OK; four grandchildren, Tyrus Dean Headman, Rosanne Steeprock Payne, Charlie Steeprock, and wife Tonya, and Sabrina Headman of Iotea, KS.; as well as four great grandchildren, Alex Payne, James Payne, Elijah Steeprock and Zaylin Steeprock.

A wake service will be held at the Ponca Indian Church of the Nazarene in Ponca City, Oklahoma at 7 pm on Sunday April 21, 2024. Funeral services will be held on Monday, April 22, 2024, at 10 am at the same location. Casket Bearers will be her grandsons and great grandsons, James and Alex Payne, Elijah and Charlie Steeprock, Tyrus Dean Headman, and Somrith Panthavong. Her burial will follow, at the Ponca Tribal Cemetery. Condolences and memories may be shared online at www.gracememorialchapel.net