Logan • Utah’s Logan Cemetery is home to a headstone that’s gaining notoriety around the world thanks to photos posted online.
Aside from birth and death dates for Wade and Kathryn Andrews, the headstone displays a recipe for Kay’s Fudge, FOX 13 reported.
“She really loved people,” Janice Johnson said of her mother, Kathryn, who went by “Kay.”
“She would write poetry, and she would take fudge whenever people got together,” Johnson said.
The headstone and its engravings offer just a hint at the incredible lives of Wade and Kay.
“She was crazy about him from the beginning,” Johnson said as she recounted their romance and whirlwind engagement during World War II.
Both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they met at a church function in New York City.
Kay had moved from Utah to the “Big Apple” to study fashion and design. Wade was already a U.S. Air Force Captain and was due to return to Europe.
The pair had time for just one date: a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
A hotel photographer snapped a photo of the couple, and the next day, Wade left for the war.
But Kay, who went by “Katie” at the time, clearly made an impression.
“This Is Salt Lake Katie,” Johnson said, pointing to a photo of her father posing in front of his B-24 bomber upon which a woman’s figure was painted on the nose.
“When he first got the plane, the crew had painted a naked lady on it and my dad said ‘no,’ so she got a swimming suit and there she is,” said Johnson.
The couple exchanged over a hundred letters, and when the pilot’s duties were over, he traveled swiftly to Salt Lake City to pop the question.
“Took her to the Capitol steps and gave her the diamond and they were married 18 days later,” Johnson said.
The couple, Johnson says, had never seen each other in daylight until after they were engaged, as both the date at the Waldorf Astoria and the trip to Utah’s Capitol Building had taken place at night.
They were married on December 18, 1944, and five children followed.
The Andrews family moved around the country, living in Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado as Wade earned a PhD in Sociology and became a professor himself, ultimately landing in Logan.
Janice Johnson remembers her mother as a woman who was always looking out for others, and even kept Tootsie Rolls in her purse for children she encountered who were in need of having their day brightened.
“She felt like prayer was so important. She lived by that,” Johnson said.
Wade Andrews passed away first in 2000.
Kay helped select the images which represent him on one side of the headstone she now shares with him.
When her children suggested Kay get equal billing, she decided her fudge recipe was something she’d like to share.
Kay passed away in 2019 at age 97.
She was aware of the growing popularity of the headstone before her passing, and was pleased it brought a smile to many.
Johnson says when the headstone was first made it included a “typo” calling for one tablespoon of vanilla, which can result in “runny fudge.”
— Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.
