WINDHAM – Kathleen “Kate” Ann McClement, 71, of Windham, passed away peacefully at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House, on May 27, 2025, after a long illness.

Kate was born on Jan. 8, 1954, in Glen Ridge, N.J., to Jean L. Hampson and Bruce W. McClement.

She was predeceased by her parents, her stepfather Raymond Mierop and stepmother Pamela McClement; and her cherished niece, Lynn Moran.

She is survived by all of her siblings and their spouses, Richard and Diane McClement of Newfield, Bonnie and James Moran of Windham, Raymond and Denise Mierop of Hiram, Kim and Patrick Campbell of Lake Hiawatha, N.J., Holly and Jeffrey Spicer of Harpswell, Scott McClement and partner Kim Shumate of Jupiter, Fla., Timothy and Diana McClement of Lehighton, Pa., and Kellie Mierop of Standish. She also leaves a multitude of nieces and nephews and great-nieces and -nephews that she always kept tabs on.

Kate graduated from Bonny Eagle High School in 1972, where she excelled as a field hockey, basketball, and track-and-field athlete. She was included in the first group of inductees into the Bonny Eagle Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000, in recognition of her numerous titles, records, and team championships. She was the first high school female in Maine to record a high jump of five feet, and she won an unprecedented four state titles and held the record for the softball throw, which remains unbroken as it was discontinued shortly after. This always made us chuckle.

Her love of sports continued at the University of Southern Maine, where she graduated with a degree in education in 1976. She held several coaching positions, including Scarborough High School track and St. Joseph’s College basketball, and played competitive sports through much of her adult life, including basketball, rugby, tennis, racquetball, and broomball.

Kate held a number of jobs, one as a UPS driver for seven years before suffering a back injury. Because of her compassion for young people facing emotional and behavioral challenges, much of her work history focused on adolescents in residential settings, including the Devereux Foundation in Pennsylvania, Sweetser Children’s Home in Saco, and several others. She also worked at Crossroads for Women in Windham.

Always a lover of the outdoors and every aspect of the natural world, especially her beloved dogs, it is no wonder her “second act” involved landscaping, which she continued until she could no longer work. She worked for a number of years as head of the perennial yard at Skillins Greenhouses in Falmouth before starting her own landscaping business. She had many loyal employees and clients in southern Maine who remained with her for decades, marveling at her knowledge, creativity, and professionalism.

Her life had its dark times, as many lives do, but she was always able to pick herself up and start over. It is awe-inspiring to those of us who loved her that, in spite of the increasing limitations that her very long illness placed on her, she was able to maintain her sense of humor and savor life’s simple pleasures. For her, that was coffee, a good book, tv and music, watching nature outside her window, her favorite foods, and the company of her closest people. With the help of her family and her indomitable spirit, Kate was able to live independently until just a couple of months before her death.

If anyone would like to make a donation in memory of Kate, gifts to Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough or the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals in Windham would be greatly appreciated.