Catherine was born in a one hundred year old log house in Eastern Buncombe County, North Carolina. It was a magical plot of land, surrounded by mature oaks, maples, white and jack pines and hemlock. Huge azaleas, mountain laurel, and rhododendron garnished the house with a dense woodland beyond. She lived there with her mother and father for six years until they moved into a house her mother built. The next door neighbors, a childless couple, gave Catherine a tender upbringing during the day while her mother taught at Asheville-Biltmore College and her father worked at Morgan Brothers School Supply. Her father taught her to read at four years of age by under-lining the sentences in the Asheville Citizen Times with his finger, beginning a lifelong love of reading, writing, and learning. When asked what has motivated her, she answers, “A continual child-like curiosity in all aspects of the world.”
Catherine was blessed by an extensive education at Saint Genevieve of the Pines Academy for Girls, including summers with a French family in Grenoble. First published at age twelve in “The Laurel”, the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s creative writing magazine, she attended UNC-A and Mars Hill College simultaneously. Catherine earned her under graduate degrees at age 18 and proceeded to the Department of Political Science at North Carolina State University.
Her career goal was the Foreign Service, but she did not pursue that, opting instead to manage programs in two federal anti-poverty agencies: HUD’s Model Cities Program and the Office of Economic Opportunity. Subsequently, she studied psychology and counseling at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, followed by theology at Beacon University, earning the Doctorate in Ministry. Catherine’s career path has taken her to forty years’ private, institutional, and community mental health practice. She served as the director of a women’s services program. Catherine spent twenty-five wonderful years as the owner-operator of the ,Glenfiddich Tree Farm producing Fraser Fir Christmas trees, seedlings and transplants for other growers and a 7000-unit container yard of hemlock and native ornamentals. A two year sabbatical from mental health services took her to the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service where she wrote grants to the federal government Department of Agriculture, and managed the Integrated Pest Management program serving growers of Fraser Fir, Canadian hemlock, tomatoes, apples, and alfalfa.
Her storytelling experience began when her soon-to-be husband, Wallace Shealy took her to an Asheville Storytelling Circle Christmas Party where she was invited to tell a story. She stood up and told “The Awfullest Christmas Tree” off the top of her head. Prior to this evening, she had thought stories were for little children and bedtimes. Since then, she has told at Asheville’s Front Porch, the Hendersonville Center for the Arts, the Blue Ridge Storytelling Summit, the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, several libraries including Asheville’s Pack Libraries, Hendersonville Library, and the Unicoi Public Library. Community and Senior Services Centers, churches, synagogues, the Center for Pioneer Living and Sycamore Shoals State Park are included in her venues. There are several appearances at Tellabration!TM, the Mountain Makins Festival, the Stone Soup Festival, the Jonesborough Storytellers Guild, the Asheville Storytellers Circle, and writing for and performing before the live audience of the Story Town Radio Show on a monthly basis.
Catherine does make time for other activities including an organic garden growing beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, herbs, squash, okra, peppers and Chinese vegetables. She cans, freezes and dehydrates the harvest. Catherine is said to be a good cook and loves to entertain. Traveling and reading are two other hobbies she pursues, in addition to supporting several non-profit organizations.
“A continual, child-like curiosity in all aspects of the world” has been, and is, her motivation.