Catherine Elizabeth Popp

It is with profound sadness that I announce the passing of my beautiful, athletic, and loving mother, Catherine Elizabeth Popp. She left this world on September 26, 2025 at the age of 64, after an eleven-year battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s. My mother faced her Alzheimer’s with both determination and grace. She taught me never to give up, no matter how hard the challenge. She was amazing. My mother was born on May 1, 1961 in New Albany, Indiana to Barbara (Colvin) Popp and George Thomas Popp. She grew up in Jeffersonville, Indiana, the fourth of five children. In 1979, my mother graduated from Our Lady of Providence High School. It just so happens that 1979 was also the year I was born. Like many young women in the 1970s, my mother did not receive comprehensive sex education. My mother was not a fan of abstinence-only education, and, if she could, she would tell you to talk to your teenagers and teach them about all of their options. Teen pregnancies destroy dreams. Right out of high school, my mother was forced to figure out how to balance working and raising a child on her own. She worked hard at retail stores and tried her best to provide a good life for me. I may have been unintended, but I never felt unwanted. In 1990, my mother married Richard (Rick) Schweitzer. Sadly, two months after they married, Rick learned that he had lung cancer, which metastasized to his brain. He died in 1991. In the wake of Rick’s death, my mother was once again a single mother and a new widow. But she faced this new period of her life with resilience and perseverance. Instead of hanging her head, my mother quit her job at Victoria’s Secret, and she went back to college, starting at Indiana University-Southeast the same year that I started high school. She graduated in five years in 1998 and later worked at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) before Alzheimer’s forced her to retire in 2014. My mother was an incredible athlete. After being widowed, she channeled her grief into running. Over the years that followed, she ran 83 marathons, including one in all 50 states and DC; she ran either an ultra-marathon, a marathon, or a half marathon on all seven continents and at least a half-marathon in 35 countries; and she raced triathlons of all lengths, including both the Ironman and Half-Ironman distances. She did her last Half-Ironman in 2019, 5 years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. My mother was quite pretty, and she left many a broken heart. Her own heart, though, was captured by her life partner of more than 25 years, Anthony (Tony) Copeland-Parker. Over the past eleven years, they traveled the world and ran many marathons together. Tony cared for her through sickness and in health, and he was the finest partner a person could want. She was so lucky. My mother is survived by so many people who will always treasure her memory, including: her loving partner Tony; her only child, Christie Popp (Greg Bullman); her three grandchildren, Aaron, Adam, and Ada Bullman; her bonus children, Aaron (Kelsie), Shawn (Cassie), and Mariah (Paul), as well as her bonus grandchildren, Lily, Luca, Aesop, and Roman. She is also survived by her mother, Barbara; her siblings Tom (Lili), Teri (Frank), Larry (Eliana), and Greg (Sara), as well her bonus siblings; her many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces; and her large collection of friends from all over the world. She was predeceased by her father, Tom, and husband, Rick. While we are choosing not to have a funeral service at this time, we will have a party in her memory at a later date. My mom chose to donate her brain for Alzheimer’s research. She would have been furious to learn that the Trump Administration recently made significant cuts to Alzheimer’s and aging research. In lieu of flowers, please write your Senators and Representatives and demand that this important research continues, and please consider donating in her memory to the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).

Catherine Elizabeth Popp

May 1, 1961 - September 26, 2025