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Member Spotlight
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Kathryn Boudreaux
After frequently visiting Charleston during her son’s four years at The Citadel, Kathryn Boudreaux grew to love the Lowcountry and moved from the DC metro area to Bluffton in June 2019. Born into a military family, she is well-traveled! Both parents were Naval officers during WWII. Her father was a career naval aviator and her mother was a Navy nurse, serving on the hospital ship USS Samaritan in the Pacific. Kathryn broke the family’s Naval tradition and served first in the Army as a Russian linguist, then later in Air Force as an Intelligence Officer for a total of 29 years of service!
She lived overseas nearly 9 years (twice in Germany for five years, and 3 years in Russia at the US Embassy Moscow). She majored in French at university and had the opportunity to live in France for a year. Her strong background in French led her to spend short periods of time at the US Embassies in Paris, France, Kinshasa, Zaire (now Congo), and Bujumbura, Burundi.
Kathryn’s late husband, Bob, was also an Air Force officer, starting out as a C-130 Pilot and later working in nuclear non-proliferation, which took the couple to the US Embassy Moscow for 3 years. Bob and Kathryn were the result of “old-fashioned” matchmaking in May of 1985 at a promotion party at the Ft. Myer Officer’s Club near Washington, DC. One of the invited guests asked if he could bring a friend or two, and Kathryn replied “Yes, the more, the merrier!” Turns out, his hope was that she might like one of the two extra guys, and she did! She and Bob were married in October 1987.
While living in Moscow, their son, Aaron, attended Russian “Detskiy Sad” (Pre-school and Kindergarten). He was the only American child in the school! Aaron is a 2016 graduate of The Citadel and has continued the Air Force tradition as an AC-130 Gunship pilot and is also the 3rd generation of military pilots.
Kathryn recalls her most memorable experience in the Air Force back in 2004 when she was honored to serve as a French interpreter and liaison officer for a US
Army Blackhawk battalion that was providing VIP Airlift throughout Normandy for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. She based at the airport near Deauville, France. The days leading up to June 6th, were extremely busy as various heads of state landed at the airport, such as Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. On June 7th, with the Commemoration ceremonies having ended, the Battalion commander arranged for three helicopters to fly up the coast of Normandy, taking along some members of the battalion and Kathryn.
They landed at Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, and Point du Hoc and were able to spend about 90 minutes at each location. Kathryn remembers walking on Omaha Beach with a young Army private and saying to him, “Many of the young men who landed here in 1944 were just your age.” Later, as she was returning to the Blackhawk, an excited French woman in her early 70’s approached and asked if she spoke French. Replying “yes,” the woman asked Kathryn to please tell the other Americans how much she appreciated the United States and what transpired in June 1944. She went on to explain that she and her parents were living in Normandy and knew that the Americans had landed. Fearing reprisals from the Germans, they went into hiding in a drainage culvert. After several days in hiding, a young American soldier found them and was able to communicate that it was safe to return to their home. Sixty years later, her gratitude was still obvious.
When Kathryn moved to Hampton Hall Club in the summer of 2019, she was eager to get involved and meet her neighbors. Prior to the pandemic, she was involved in a large book club, Bunco, and the Lowcountry Christian Women’s Group. She was recently “recruited” to be the chairperson of the Military Liaison Committee for the Lowcountry Foundation of Wounded Military Heroes (LFWMH). The Foundation hosts an annual Golf Classic in May here in Hampton Hall for service members and veterans who have post-9/11 combat-related injuries. As of this writing, she has coordinated for 55 Wounded Heroes (to include one FEMALE Hero!) who will be attending this year’s event.
As life returns to a new “normal”, Kathryn may start a “Cookbook Club” where the host chooses a favorite cookbook or chef, and guests bring dishes from that book or chef’s repertoire.
Outside of Hampton Hall, she likes to kayak, dine, and cook with the Women’s Association of Hilton Head Island. She still loves to travel and looks forward to sightseeing when things return to normal. Prior to the pandemic, she
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was singing in a musical duo “The Sojourners”, performing at assisted living facilities in Bluffton and Hilton Head.
In March 2020, just before the world turned upside down due to COVID-19, Kathryn left for a long-planned trip to the South of France. She loves cooking classes, and this was her third cooking class in France. This class was especially meaningful, as it was held at a beautiful home known as “La Pitchoune” located about 45 minutes north of Nice. She spent a wonderful week cooking and exploring local French villages and markets. The reason this trip was so special is that La Pitchoune was the summer home of Julia Child. Since Kathryn had been the first to sign up for the trip, she was able to choose which bedroom she wanted…of course, she chose Julia’s!
When asked what she enjoys most about Hampton Hall Club, Kathryn said, “The sense of community! I could feel it when I first started looking at homes here. Moving here as a widow, I knew I needed that sense of community, which is much harder to find in a metropolitan area such as Washington, DC. I was fortunate to meet so many wonderful people in Hampton Hall prior to the pandemic, making this past year much easier than it might have been!”
EASTER 2021
Music Bingo
Rick & Sue Mitchell capture a brilliant Hampton Hall sunset.
