Obituary: Catherine Cole

A memorial service for Catherine Cole, 85, will be at 1 p.m. Friday at William R. Hamilton Funeral Home in Birmingham, Mich.

Mrs. Cole died Nov. 11, 1999, in San Antonio, Texas. She was born May 2, 1914, in Detroit, Mich., to Anna Mae and Eugene Welker, the founder of Welker Machinery Co.

She graduated from St. Mary's Academy in Monroe, Mich. and attended Marygrove College in Detroit.

Her great love of athletics, especially ice skating, led to a brief career skating in several Sonia Henie movies. In Hollywood, she met and married her first husband, Herbert Harper. The couple toured the country for several years with Ms. Henie's Ice Revue.,

In 1961, she married Harold Cole, a mining engineer, and they lived in Northern California before retiring to Carson City. In Carson City, Mrs. Cole was active in local charities and Republican clubs.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold, in 1990.

Among her survivors are children, Suzanne Wilkinson of Bal Harbour, Fla. and Herbert Harper III, of San Antonio; brother, John Welker, of Traverse City and Eugene Welker of Clearwater, Fla. and three grandchildren.

The Wm. R. Hamilton Co. Funeral Directors of Birmingham, are in charge of arrangements.