Katharine Quanbeck, age 84 of Lakeville, went Home to be with Her Lord and Savior on Friday evening, January 14, 2022. She was surrounded by the love of her husband and family. Katharine Doris “Kathie” “Katie” Miller Quanbeck, was born May 24, 1937, in Browns Valley, Minnesota, to Louis Phillip and Gusta Josephine (Gravdal) Miller. At the age of five, due to flooding of the town, her family moved to Worthington, where she graduated from Worthington High School in 1955. That Fall she moved to Minneapolis to study nursing at Fairview Hospital - receiving her degree in 1958. In July of 1962, on a blind date, she met her future husband, Stanley Quanbeck, a senior in medical school in Chicago. They married on December 22, 1962, at Hope Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. In 1964, following the completion of her husband’s internship in St. Paul accepted a call by the American Lutheran Church to go as medical missionaries to Madagascar, where they served for the next 40 years. Kathie is remembered by her co-workers as being humble, always seeking ways to promote their well-being, encouraging them to take leadership roles in teaching health, disease prevention and always witnessing for the role of the Holy Spirit to bring these changes about. Coming out of poverty, she sought to identify with the poorest of the community, including the village prostitutes, taking the seats in church where the poorest would sit. Word got around town that the prostitutes were called “Zanaka Kambeky”- children of Quanbecks. Kathie was very smart, a linguist, and learned two languages from scratch while living with her husband who grew up speaking these languages. She learned to identify sub-clans within the tribal grouping of the Malagasy people of Madagascar and eventually gathered twenty-five oral histories from these clans scattered throughout the island. She had an incredible memory and would usually sing Lutheran Hymns from memory, all verses as well as many Malagasy Hymns. In 2004, Kathie and Stanley returned to Minnesota and settled in Lakeville. They were longtime members of Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and recently joined Bethel Lutheran. For more than a decade, Kathie has been a diligent archivist, cataloging the history of the Quanbeck family in Madagascar. She was a key member in the founding of Global Health Ministries - a natural continuation of her life of service to others. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Stanley; 4 children and 15 grandchildren, Glenn (Lisa) Quanbeck, children Katelin (Bobby) Hollowell and Jakob Quanbeck, Cynthia (Brian) Goke, children Mikelah, Logan, Quentin & Zoe Goke, Vicki (Shon) Schetnan, children Lucy, Kalli, Kip, Camille and Daisy Schetnan, Lillian (Jonathan) Leslie, children Hannah (Henrik Stevens), Tiana, Joshua and Sophia Leslie; and brother Charles (Carol) Miller and children. Funeral services will be 11:00AM, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, at Bethel Lutheran Church, 1321 North Ave, Nfld. Visitation will begin at 10AM and a reception will follow. Interment will be in Oaklawn Cemetery, Nfld. Please send memorials to Global Health Ministries or (GHM) office@ghm.org or Friends of Madagascar Mission (FOMM) friendsofmadagascarmission@gmail.com The funeral will be live https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWKpv15icRz4lXerE80RofQstreamed at Arrangements are with the Benson & Langehough Funeral Home. www.northfieldfuneral.com