Kate Warich, formerly of Bainbridge Island., died on Feb. 15 from complications of living with breast cancer for 17 years.

She was born on March 3, 1952, in Ludlow, Mass., and graduated in 1970 from Stratford High. From 1979 to 1984 she was married to Ted Somogyi; together they moved to San Francisco.

After a divorce, she lived in Fairfield, Iowa and in Boston before settling in Connecticut, where she worked in Bridgeport at the Kennedy Center from 1996 to 2003.

In 2003, she moved to Bainbridge Island and worked as board liaison at the start-up Bainbridge Graduate Institute. She moved to Billings in June 2008 to be closer to her mother and brother, Fred.

Kate was challenged for her entire life with Bipolar Disorder.

She was preceded in death by her father, Stanley Kazmierski. She is survived by her mother, Bertha Kazmierski, of Montana; siblings Linda Desrosiers, of Bainbridge Island, Walter (Pat) Kazmierski of Connecticut, Fred (Nan) Kazmierski, of Montana, and Valerie Collins, of Connecticut; eight nieces and nephews; two step-nephews; and numerous great nieces and nephews.

Cremation has taken place, and a celebration of her life will be in Connecticut later this spring.

Memorials can be made to National Alliance of Mental Illness – www.nami.org – or to Bainbridge Graduate Institute, www.bgiedu.org.