With heavy hearts, we announce the sudden passing of our beloved Kit McCluskey Thompson on December 7, 2024. A loving wife, devoted daughter, cherished sister, adored aunt, and precious friend, her exceptional talents as a piano player, teacher, and singer were outshined only by her kind, loving spirit that brought love, light, and music into the world.

Kit was born on February 1, 1973, to Heather and William McCluskey. She spent the early years of her life in San Bernardino, California. Kit and her brother Brett shared a close bond with cousins T.J. Griggs and Baba (Heather) Sowell, practically growing up alongside them. Some of their favorite adventures together included creating plays, outfitting themselves in elaborate costumes, and performing for their families in the backyard. As a teenager, Kit met Esther Murphy and the two remained best friends up through today. She also found great joy in becoming an aunt and spoiling her nephew, Stephen.

A naturally gifted musician, Kit studied Piano and Voice at University of California, Riverside, where she earned her degree in 1997. In the early 2000s, Kit moved to her true home in Northeast Georgia, where she put her musical talents to work. Playing piano, singing, and teaching, Kit touched countless lives and instilled a passion for music in everyone she encountered. While serving as the accompanist for the Land of Spirit productions in Lavonia, Georgia, she met her husband John Thompson, who proposed to her at the theater in front of an elated cast and crew. The two later wed in the same theater and made a home together in the Goldmine community.

Kit taught hundreds of students through the years, providing loving guidance to a generation of children at the McCluskey Music Studio and at Athens Christian School. She shared her God-given talents as Choir Director and Accompanist at Lavonia United Methodist Church and as Choir Director and Accompanist at Sacred Heart of Jesus, Hartwell, Georgia. She also served as the church pianist at the Lavonia Presbyterian Church for many years.

Kit's light has not gone out. It resides in the hearts of all who knew and loved her. We will remember her infectious laughter that set everyone else giggling. We will remember her humor and quick wit, her ability to recall every lyric to any song from the 1980s, and her uncanny skill at impressions, her effortless mastery of playing Mozart and Bach as if it were Chopsticks. We will remember her soaring soprano that lifted the music and our spirits to the heavens. Kit's light still shines, and her voice now resides where it has always belonged, with the angels.

Services will be held at Lavonia United Methodist Church on December 19 at 6:30 PM.  Arrangements by Strickland Funeral Home, Lavonia. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Northeast Georgia Animal Shelter or the Hart County Humane Society.