Kate Pemberton

Kate died peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Friday 30th January 2026, aged 58, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, having successfully survived bowel cancer just 4 years earlier.

Kate was born on 4th June 1967 to Thomas (Tom) and Joyce Pemberton in Stafford, England, the youngest of their 4 children. Her older siblings were Richard, Julia and Lucy.

In 1973, when Kate was 6 years old, the family moved to a village called Titchfield in the south of England. Kate always considered this to be her home in England. After completing her formal education at 16 she moved to Basingstoke to develop her ambition of a career in the theatre. She attended Queen Mary College and completed a course in Theatre Studies, making several life-long friends.

After graduation Kate moved to London and found work at the Bloomsbury Theatre and later, amongst other jobs, she worked for the BBC.

The house on Melrose Road, South London, that Kate lived in for many years had a large, wild garden. She was given full rein to redesign it and by doing so, she developed her plant knowledge, love and talent for garden design.

In 1994, after the passing of her father, Kate decided to travel more extensively and embarked on a solo trip around the world. Over the years this love of travelling would take her to 49 different countries in total.

One of the places she visited on this trip was a hostel called The Lazy Fish in New Zealand. It was the country and place that won her heart and, in 2000, New Zealand was where she met and fell in love with Fritz, the love of her life.

Kate then worked the first of many winter seasons at The Rustler in Alta, where she became known as Kitty. After a couple of years of living between London and Salt Lake City, Kate and Fritz decided to set up home together in Salt Lake.

She and Fritz got married in 2003. In 2013, after 6 years of a difficult battle against infertility Kate gave birth to Theo, who was much longed for and whom she adored.

Kate set up her gardening business, Quintessential Gardening, in 2005. She designed, redesigned and maintained many gardens for private residences and businesses, including the McCune Mansion, where she made a significant impact.

For over 15 years Kate has enjoyed volunteering at Red Butte Botanical Gardens especially at their musical concerts.

Kate ‘s creativity was multi-faceted and over the past 10 years she developed her love of quilting, joining the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild where she later served on the board. As well as attending regular meetings she went on quilting retreats and conferences.

Kate was very sociable and loved maintaining friendships and bringing people together. A highlight of her year was their annual Hurricane party, where Kate enjoyed mixing and testing all the cocktails – she was an expert.

Over the last 10 years of her life Kate battled with medical issues and the resulting extreme fatigue limited her ability to do as much as she wanted. It is due to her fighting spirit that she was able to achieve as much as she did during this period.