Katherine Sacker Rauch

Katherine Sacker Rauch, celebrated as Kalamazoo's 1980 New Year's Baby, died Monday, July 1, in Lansings Sparrow Hospital. Katie, 39, of East Lansing, was born Jan. 1, 1980, in Bronson Hospital. She attended St. Augustine School and was a 1998 graduate of Kalamazoo Hackett Central High School. She played on her schools' basketball, volleyball and soccer teams. She also played softball at Westwood Little League and soccer in the American Youth Soccer Organization. She played piano and clarinet. She enjoyed travel, visiting Spain twice and cheering for Michigan State at the 1988 Rose Bowl on her eighth birthday. Katie attended Kalamazoo Valley Community College with a goal of honing her skills as a writer and becoming a teacher. She worked for a number of restaurants until recent years when she struggled with health issues. Besides Kalamazoo and East Lansing, Katie lived in Howell, Lansing and Gibsonville, Ohio. She was preceded in death by her mother, Roberta (Robin) Sacker Rauch, in 1997, and her fianc, Robert Dust of Lansing, in 2017. Katie is survived by her father, Victor, and stepmother, Ellen DeRosia, of East Lansing; four siblings, Bethany Cody of Santa Clarita, Cal., Jennifer (Joe) Lekan of Kalamazoo, Robert (Kristy) Rauch of Chicago, and Michael Rauch of Harrison Township; two step-sisters, Cheri DeRosia of Pittsboro, N.C., and Melissa DeRosia of East Lansing; and a number of aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins. No funeral service is planned. Her ashes are to be interred next to her mothers in Cheboygan in a private family ceremony later this summer.