Kathleen Elizabeth Metzner was born Jan. 9, 1962 in Santa Barbara, to Paul and Marilyn Metzner. She died June 10, 2026, after a brief illness of lung cancer.

Kathy lived the last 21 years in Arivaca, Arizona, on her five-acre property with many dogs and 90 chickens. She made friends with the wildlife and kept a kiddie pool way out in the property that she kept full of water for the deer, cougars, wild hogs, and whatever was out there.

She loved all creatures and had a special affinity for them. An owl lived in a tree in her yard that talked to her, and many creatures kept her company.

She sold the eggs, and her chickens had such personalities. She made a “beach” for her chickens, complete with kiddie pool surrounded by crushed oyster shells and baby Adirondack chairs. They enjoyed it so much.

A Santa Barbara girl, she loved the ocean, and her dying wish was to come back to it one last time. We brought her home from Tucson Medical Center nine days before her death so she could be with family and friends.

We took her to the beach to see it, hear it, smell it. Kathy loved looking for beach glass with her siblings whenever she was home. Six days later she asked to go to the hospital and three days later she died with dear friends Kerri and Kyndra with her until the end.

Kathy went to Goleta schools and San Marcos High School. She was assistant manager of Jack in the Box when it first came and was longtime manager of the Pet House on Chapala Street. For years she took the samples pet food salesman gave her to feed the pets of homeless folks at the Moreton Bay fig tree.

As a child she had dogs, cats, a snake in a drawer in her room, and 200 rats in big cages in our garage which she sold to a pet store. For a short time she had a store that sold snakes and exotic amphibians on lower State Street.

Kathy was very intelligent, and when she got her GED, the administrator called her mother to say that Kathy had the highest scores in their history.

She was very resourceful, creative, quite the storyteller, and made close friends wherever she went. She loved her family above all and cherished the times we were all together.

Surviving Kathy are her mother Marilyn Metzner; brothers Kevin Callans (Kristen) and Paul Metzner; sister Pamela Hiromerides (Philip); as well as Aunts Lenie, Mary, Sandy and Gayle; nieces and nephews Brittany Goldstein (Nathan), Claire, Grae, Aedan Metzner; Nathan Hiromerides, Fiona Rodriguez (Nico); six grandnieces and nephews; one great grandnephew: several cousins; and dear lifetime friends, especially Kerri Merrigan Churchill.

Kathy believed in our Lord. She lived the life she chose and died the way she chose.