Katie Avent, 54, died Saturday, September 2, 2006 at home in 
Oriental, N.C., fifteen months after being diagnosed with a form of highly invasive cancer.

Katie was born Nov. 4, 1951, in El Paso, Texas, but grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, where she graduated from Murrah High School. She received a master's degree in English with a minor in journalism from Mississippi State University, where she later taught. She did additional work in graduate English at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.

She began her career in journalism at the Starkville Daily News, and worked as a reporter and editor at several newspapers throughout her career, including The Clarion-Ledger, The Meridian Star, both in Mississippi, The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va., and the Buffalo River Review in Tennessee. She was a special editor on the Money Desk at USA Today during 1989-90 when the Gannett company was selecting its better editors and reporters to help start the new nationwide daily.

She was a copy editor at The Cincinnati Enquirer for several years before she moved to Hilton Head Island, S.C., where she and Tony Tharp were wed in 1993. They had been together since 1986. She was also editor for a book publisher in North Carolina, "The Insider's Guide."

Katie and her husband, Tony, avid boat enthusiasts, founded and published The Boating News, a maritime monthly for the central Atlantic seaboard, and later established the Coast News and Coast News Online, published in North Carolina.
In addition to her extensive journalism career, Katie was a dedicated educator, including working for five years as Student Media Coordinator at the 12,000-student College of Charleston during which time she was selected Student Employer of the Year. She taught journalism and writing courses and founded a journalism practicum at the four-year college. She also taught writing and English for several community colleges and served with AmeriCorps, teaching reading and writing skills to adult learners. She was a volunteer in adult literacy programs with the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry on Hilton Head Island, the Trident Literacy Association in the Charleston area, and served on the inaugural committee at Mississippi State University to establish the Turner Catledge journalism award program.

Katie is survived by her husband and best friend of 20 years, Tony Tharp, and her extended family Gene Tharp, Lou Tharp, Alan Tharp, all of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Laura Lee Tharp of Portland, Or.; father Wallace Avent of Jackson; brother Neil Avent and sister-in-law Lyle of Richmond, Va.; sister Connie Avent Suber, sister Bobbie Jo Myers and brother-in-law Brad, all of Ridgeland; nieces Laura Avent of Richmond, Va.; Alice McBratney of Florence, S.C.; Jessica Casaver of Evansville, Indiana, and Christina and Melissa Myers of Ridgeland. Katie is preceded in death by her mother, Mildred Joyce Avent.