Obituary of Katherine Camp Buck McDermott

Katherine Camp (Kaye) Buck McDermott, died Thursday, May 6, 2021.Kaye was born September 3, 1937 to Raymond Elliott and Katherine Camp Buck and grew up on Buck Oaks Farm, then known as the “Texas White House” in a flurry of political activity and volunteerism which influenced her later life.A graduate of Arlington Heights High School, she attended Briarcliff Junior college in New York for a year before she entered the University of Texas at Austin. Then, after graduating in 1960 as the first woman to receive a BBA degree with a major in insurance, she began work at her father’s company, Commercial Standard Insurance.Later that year, Kaye served as co-chair of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Ladies for Lyndon” Committee at the National Democratic Convention, in Los Angeles, after which she became affiliated with a number of campaigns on both local and state levels and was named to “Who’s Who in American Politics.”After her father’s death in 1971, she managed the Raymond Buck Foundation, as well as the family’s Lazy B. Ranch, near Cresson. And in 1978, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show. She also was on the Executive Board of the Cowtown Cowbelles.Kaye worked with Grace Ward Lankford in the initial planning and fund raising for the Van Cliburn International Competition and served on its board of directors from its inception until her death. She also served on the boards of the Schools of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Christian University; the American Heart Association; Texas Art Alliance; Catholic Charities and the Texas Association for Mental Health. She was a member of the Assembly, Junior League, the Fort Worth Woman’s Club and Kappa Alpha Theta’s Fort Worth alumni chapter.Kaye was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Raymond Buck Jr., and a daughter, Stephanie McDermott.Survivors: Husband, Roy; daughters, Katherine Tower and husband, Andrew, of Houston, and Mary Margaret Coulborn and husband, Peter, of Fort Worth; six grandchildren; Buck, Jack and Hunt Tower, Savannah Kaye Volmert and Emma and Jack Coulborn; nieces, Marsland Buck Moncrief and husband, Dick; Katherine Buck Miller and husband, David; and nephew, Raymond E. (Billy) Buck III.