Kate Broadfoot Holmes Slater died in her home on June 11, 2022, after an extended period of declining health. She was 95 years old.
Born August 24, 1926, in Fayetteville, NC, Kate was the daughter of Charles Wetmore Broadfoot, Sr. and Frances Walker Broadfoot. She was the only niece to three adoring aunts who lived across the street from her on Oakridge Avenue in the Broadfoot homeplace. She was pre-deceased by her parents and her beloved brothers, Charles Wetmore Broadfoot, Jr. and Hal Walker Broadfoot.
Kate was valedictorian of the Fayetteville High School Class of 1943 and many of her classmates were her lifelong friends. She graduated from Saint Mary’s Junior College and attended Randolph-Macon College before leaving to marry Oliver Holmes, Jr., who had returned to Fayetteville from distinguished service in World War II to join his father, Oliver W. Holmes, Sr. in business at Holmes Electric. Kate and Oliver had five children, Oliver Wendell Holmes III (Perri Knize), Frances Walker Haigh, John F. Holmes (Mary), Charles B. Holmes and Kate H. Holmes.
Oliver died in 1958 at the age of 39 leaving her widowed with five children under the age of ten. Kate devoted the next era of her life to raising her children and seeing them successfully through college before she was able to think about herself again. In 1974 she reconnected with John Edmund Slater, an old beau she met when he was stationed at Ft. Bragg briefly during WWII.
Kate and John were married in 1977 and for the next 28 years Fayetteville became her second home and Oyster Bay, New York her primary residence. Kate and John traveled extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia on both business and pleasure. Kate easily made many new friends in New York where she was an avid tennis player and a skilled bridge player. She was a member of the Colony Club, the oldest social club in New York City established by and for women. During the summers, Kate and John enjoyed frequent summer visits from children and grandchildren at their home in Oyster Bay.
When John retired after a successful forty-eight-year career as a publisher at McGraw-Hill in New York City, there was no doubt that Fayetteville was where they intended to live out their retirement years, returning permanently to the city in 2005. John died in 2011.
Kate was a member of the Colonial Dames of America, and she was active in the early days of the Junior League of Fayetteville and in her church auxiliaries at St. John’s Episcopal Church of Fayetteville and St. John’s of Lattingtown, NY. Kate is survived by her five children, two stepsons, Nathanael Slater and Gifford Slater, nine grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, her sisters-in-law Mary Fant Holmes Everett and Katherine Holmes Wheeler and a host of nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, North Carolina on June 21 at 11:00 AM, conducted by Reverend Robert Alves. The family will receive visitors at a reception at the church immediately following the service.
The family would like to convey special thanks to all Kate’s loving caregivers over her final years.
Memorials may be made to St. John’s Episcopal Church, 302 Green Street, Fayetteville, NC 28301 or Cumberland Community Foundation, P.O. Box 2345 Fayetteville, NC 28302.
