Sister Kath Siliverthorn Retires from Holy Rosary School

After decades of service, Holy Rosary School's Sister Kath Silverthorn is signing off - from both her job as the longtime, beloved physical education teacher at Holy Rosary Edmonds and her on-air role in KIRO Radio's popular "One on One with the Nuns" sports segment with host Dori Monson.

For the past 22 years, Sister Kath and her colleague, Sister Cele Gorman, competed on air with Monson to see who could best predict the final scores of the top NFL games of the week. As a special tribute to his radio partner, Monson surprised Sister Kath by appearing as the special guest at her retirement celebration Friday evening at the Holy Rosary Parish Center.

The two engaged in one final round of "One on One," picking the Seahawks to beat the Giants this Sunday. When asked who had the best overall record in their two decades of predicting NFL winners, they hugged one another and declared it a tie.

Sister Kath announced her retirement from more than 30 years of teaching this summer. She spent the past 20 years teaching PE to pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students at Holy Rosary. She has been a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace since 1977.

Sports have always played a central role in her life. Her father was a professional baseball player who signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and later became a Major League baseball scout. Sister Kath says she learned to hold her own while growing up with eight siblings in Sedro Woolley, where she played basketball, baseball, softball and field hockey, and also won the state tennis championship for junior colleges in 1969.

She says she also liked to play football in grade school. "It was OK to tackle in those days," she recalls. "Not a lot of safety rules."

Several of her siblings, nieces and nephews joined her on stage at Friday evening's celebration, in addition to many of her colleagues, friends and former students. Sister Kath is a familiar face around town and plans to remain in the area now that she is retired.