Kitty Louise LaBounty, 67, passed away October 10 after a brave and stubborn battle with cancer. In the three years after her diagnosis Kitty took advantage of her time and lived life to the fullest. She traveled to places she had never been before, spent time with family and friends, enjoyed nature, and went to see new birds.
Kitty was born September 24, 1958, to Virginia (Olson) and Warren LaBounty in Ashland, Oregon. Her parents, both teachers, were born in Illinois and moved west to Oregon in the 1950s.
After graduating high school in Salem, Oregon, in 1976, Kitty attended Portland State University and then transferred to the University of Washington. She first visited Sitka in 1981, working as a summer field assistant for the U.S. Forest Service, then completed her bachelor’s degree in botany in 1982. In 1985, Kitty completed a master’s degree in plant pathology (thesis title: "Interaction of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi") at the University of California Riverside, and then moved back to Sitka for good.
During her first years in Sitka working for the Forest Service, Kitty traveled by boat, plane, and helicopter to some of the most remote places in the Tongass National Forest (Chatham Soil District), to perform vegetation surveys. She also had a passion for fungi. On her 25th birthday in 1983, in Port Alexander, she taught her first of many mushroom identification classes. For that first class, she was paid in birthday cake.
Kitty married Forest Service coworker Jim Downs in 1986, but tragedy struck in 1987 when Jim was killed in a work accident. In 1988, Kitty gave up full time field work when daughter Deirdre was born. She married Jeff Longridge (since divorced) and son Ian was born in 1990. The whole family worked summers trolling on the F/V Saami, but Kitty continued to do botany consulting work.
Kitty started full time teaching as a biology professor at the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus and Sheldon Jackson College when her children were teenagers. She also used her passion for botany and science to teach more focused classes on the natural history and flora of Alaska. While working at Sheldon Jackson, she along with friend and coworker Matt Goff received grant funding to start the Natural History Seminar Series, bringing in experts to share science for a Sitka audience. When Sheldon Jackson College closed, the seminar series moved to UAS, and at the same time Kitty became a founding board member at the newly formed Sitka Sound Science Center. She retired from UAS in December 2023.
Kitty had many hobbies, including birding, and one of her joys every year was participating in the Christmas Bird Count. Kitty served on many nonprofit boards over the years including the Sitka Conservation Society, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and Yoga Union. She enjoyed dancing with the Sitka Studio of Dance and performed in many productions of The Nutcracker. Kitty was passionate about fiber arts, including quilting, knitting, spinning, and weaving. In the mid 1980s she was a founding member of the Sitka Fiber Arts Guild and was instrumental in bringing a number of nationally and internationally known weavers, spinners and dyers to Sitka to teach workshops for the next 12 years.
Kitty was an avid gardener at home and in the community. Her island vegetable and flower garden was a central part of home life from the time she moved out to Galankin Island. Over the course of her life in Sitka, Kitty was involved in many gardening groups and community projects, and was always willing to offer gardening advice. Kitty was involved in local KCAW radio, co-hosting the Garden Show for over 30 years and her own radio show (most recently, Hometown Brew on Thursday afternoons) for more than 35 years. She was also fond of theater. She saw her first Shakespeare play at age 9, and at age 65 had watched productions of all 37 Shakespeare plays. This past summer, in a spirit of completeness, a group of her friends staged a production of “Two Noble Kinsmen” for her.
Kitty is survived by daughter Deirdre LaBounty of Sitka, son Ian Longridge and his wife Linsey (Murphy) Longridge of Fairbanks, and brother Perry LaBounty and his wife Mary of Salem, Oregon.
A memorial service will be held April 11, 2026, in Sitka. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made in Kitty's memory to the Georgeson Botanical Garden Friends in Fairbanks or the Alaska Botanical Garden in Anchorage. The family encourages everyone to receive their recommended cancer screenings, and take an extra moment to appreciate the plants around you.
