Namesake of Grapevine scholarship was ultimate volunteer
They were the kind of friends who decided to change their names together in junior high.
Best friend Clydene Johnson of Grapevine said "there wasn't much you could do with Clydene," so she didn't change hers, but Livengood changed the spelling of her name to Kathee "because it was more fun."
The friendship between Johnson and Kathee Livengood started in the first grade in the Irving area and stretched over decades. Livengood died in May 2012, and left a long legacy of public service in Grapevine.
The Grapevine Chamber of Commerce Women's Division started a scholarship in her honor this year.
After the pair graduated from high school they went their separate ways for years. Livengood had graduated from the University of Houston and the Wood-Tobe Coburn Fashion Merchandising School in New York, married and lived in several more U.S. cities before she returned to Grapevine in 1977.
Johnson was living in Trophy Club and they picked up where they left off.
She got Livengood involved in the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce Women's Division and launched a long and varied volunteer public service career.
Livengood, a real estate agent, was past chairman of the Grapevine Chamber and a three-time president of the Women's Division. She started the American Cancer Society "Relay for Life" in Grapevine.
The boards she served on included Rocky Top Therapy Services, Joey Wilkins Foundation, Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau (around 12 years) and GRACE.
But she also took her efforts to the streets. Livengood volunteered at every single GrapeFest and Main Street Days for 28 years.
She was heavily involved in fundraising for several groups and organized various major events for the American Cancer Society in Grapevine, Johnson said.
The December before she died, she was out interviewing senior citizens to complete wish lists for Christmas giving trees, Johnson said.
Livengood always had been good with people, Johnson said—she was that girl in high school who was a cheerleader, Most Beautiful, the one who knew everybody. And she remembered people. Livengood had not forgotten names even years later at reunions, Johnson said.
The two of them traveled on Grapevine Visitor and Convention Bureau trips to New York City, decked out in cowgirl gear to impress the city people. Johnson said Livengood also was involved with Grapevine's Sister Cities program and traveled to Scotland and elsewhere to represent Grapevine on that front.
The scholarship being offered in her name is for women who need help getting into the workforce, Johnson said, such as "ladies who have come, maybe, from an abusive relationship or someone who finds themselves divorced or a widow."
Memorial scholarship
The Grapevine Chamber Foundation created the $1,500 scholarship in Livengood's honor to help women in Tarrant County gain or improve employment skills through education.
The deadline to apply is Dec. 31. To download an application visitwww.grapvinechamber.org and look under "Foundation." Guidelines for submission also are on the website, as is a form for donating to the scholarship fund.
