Katherine Frost Bunch, 103, died on Aug. 2, 2018 in her home surrounded by family, just 11 days after attending a family reunion in Flat Rock.

She was born Oct. 2, 1914 to Ernest Henry and Annie-Laurie Holton Frost in Mocksville. In 1933, while at Davis Hospital Nursing School to become a registered nurse, she married Charles Ledbetter Bunch of Statesville. Together they had 8 children, Charles L. Jr., David Frost, Linda, Austin Whitfield, William Douglas, Benjamin Davis, Catherine Anne and Jane Lynn. She possessed an uncanny ability to manage her brood, and instilled basic life skills, a respect for nature, love of music and each other. She was renowned for her wit, left-handed compliments (“You look better than the last time I saw you”), and awareness of and opinions on current affairs. After raising and educating her children, she returned to nursing until retiring and beginning her new life of traveling, dancing and shopping with her companion and soul mate, Jackie Pogue. Her later years were spent hosting family and friends in her apartment overlooking Lake Morton and downtown Lakeland (Florida) across the rose garden. She was a faithful member of First United Methodist Church and her loved Vanguard Sunday School Class and Circle 10. She was a reader of current events and historical novels and stayed actively involved up to her passing.

She was predeceased by husband Charlie; sons Charles Jr. (Maxine), Benjamin (Krisztina) and William; and grandsons, John Bunch and Jerry Schutz.

Survivors: daughters Linda Best of Brevard, Anne Toopes (Jim) of Gainesville, Ga., Jane Atherton of Bellingham, Wash.; sons, David Bunch (Jean) of Lakeland, Austin Bunch (Marion) of Atlanta; 17 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; a great-great-grandchild; and 3 sisters, Betty Frost of Mocksville, Ernestine Kincaid of Bessemer City, and Anne Breiding of Vero Beach, Fla.

  A memorial service followed by a reception celebrating her life will be held at First United Methodist Church, 72 Lake Morton Drive in Lakeland on Saturday, Aug. 11 at 11 a.m.