Katie Seely: DEATH STEALS A YOUNG GIRL
The tragic fragility of life. One minute Katie Seely, 11, is bubbling with life, her big brown eyes sparkling with laughter. The next minute she’s gone, the victim of a freak horseback accident Saturday when the horse she had mounted suddenly reared and fell backward on her.
She was the daughter of Wisconsin State Journal reporter Ron Seely and his wife, Doreen.
If there is any consolation in this tragedy that has struck Ron and Doreen, it is the blessing that certainly must come from the wonder of sharing life for more than a decade with such a sweet-faced young woman.
Death, untoward and unexpected, is the nightmare that faces every mother and father. There is a measure of reluctant acceptance when life ends for those who have lived out their time. But never for children. Never for an 11-year-old who was such a joy to her family and her many friends.
Services for Katie are set for 6 p.m. tonight at the First Unitarian Society Meeting House, 900 University Bay Dr. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers memorials be given to the family for a memorial project at Crestwood Elementary School. She spent her elementary school years at Crestwood and had just begun as a sixth-grader at Jefferson Middle School.
Our heart goes out to Ron and Doreen and Katie’s younger brother Wilson ”Will” Seely and their many friends.
Published in The Capital Times, (Madison, WI) – September 9, 1991
