Katie Mae Cole Jacquot

Born on June 29, 1933, as Katie Mae Cole in Asheville, NC, Katie Jacquot left this earth on Friday, March 31, 2023, after a many years long battle with dementia.

During her early life she was the captain of the basketball team at Oakley High School in Asheville. She had her picture and name in the paper on more than one occasion for her basketball accomplishments and was awarded a few medals. After high school, she was a waitress at several hotels and restaurants. She worked at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville and specialized in large events. She used to brag that she could carry several trays of food with one hand over her shoulder without incident. She also lived in Michigan briefly. She met her husband, Richard James Jacquot, Sr., while waitressing at a restaurant in Maryland. He said he knew she liked him when she left work and turned around to give him one last glance. After marriage, she was a caretaker from raising her two children (Rick and Jackie), volunteering as a teacher’s assistant at her children’s elementary school, and driving a school bus for disabled children in Montgomery Co., Maryland, often taking home the disabled children and babysitting them after school. She worked two jobs for several years after she and Richard divorced. She worked at Highs convenience store in Kensington, Maryland, at night and drove a school bus during the day. She retired early from her school bus career to move back to Asheville to take care of her ailing mother and then helped raise her only grandson, RJ. She didn’t have a lot but would give you the shirt off her back to help if she could.

She was a Christian of the Baptist faith and attended church in Maryland for several years, often taking her daughter to Sunday school. She read the bible numerous times and found peace in reading the pages in her spare time. She was also an excellent cook, could sew any outfit you asked her to and made all her daughter’s childhood and some adult outfits. She crocheted beautiful doll clothes, hats, doilies, etc. She loved music, especially country music. You would wake up on a Saturday morning with it playing loudly in her condo while she cleaned. She loved animals, all animals, often saving wild animals such as baby birds fallen out of a tree, squirrels, raccoons, etc. She had such wisdom that she could figure out how to handle just about any situation or problem that you might have. Always having an ear to listen, she made you feel better after a conversation. She didn’t care about having a lot of material things for herself and would rather do for others. She was beautiful inside and out. Soft spoken and sweet, she had a smile that would brighten the room.

While her family has been mourning her loss for years, she is finally home and whole again. She is preceded in death by her father and mother, Harold B. and Lucy Todd Cole; brothers: Richard, Floyd, Eugene and Donald Cole; sisters: Blanche Vess Woodward and Joyce Miller; grandson, Richard James “RJ” Jacquot, III; daughter, Kathy Ray, and numerous pets. She is survived by her son, Richard James Jacquot Jr.; daughter, Jacqueline Jacquot; sister, Aline Cole Ingram; brother, Bruce Cole; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Katie’s family would like to thank Aston Park Health Care for taking care of her during her last years of life.

There will be a memorial celebration of her life at Groce Funeral Home on Patton Ave. on Wednesday, April 5, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, her family asks that memorials be made to the ASPCA, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.