Journalist, artist Kate Woods dies in car accident.
She also pushed the EPA to clean up an abandoned mercury mine in New Idria that polluted local waterways.
She is listed as a mariachi pioneer on the mariachi website, mujeresenelmariachi.com: “Woods started playing violin when she was 10 years old.
She was recruited into the half-Anglo/half-Mexican mariachi called Mariachi Atzlán.
For the next 11 years, Kate went on to perform with many different mariachi groups throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area, including Mariachi Azteca, Mariachi Los Caltecas and Mariachi Los Monarcos.
She was known for her intelligence, razor-sharp wit, sense of humor, and random acts of kindness to strangers.
As a reporter and columnist with The Pinnacle newspaper from the late 1990s until it was sold in 2005, she covered local politics, the environment and wrote a popular weekly column titled “Report From the Badlands” a satirical look at San Benito County politics through the eyes of the “Mayor of New Idria” also known as Orange the Cat, named after the orange water contaminated by an abandoned mercury mine in New Idria.
“There will never be another Kate Woods.
Kate Woods was a fierce protector of San Benito County,” said Rick Rivas.
She became senior writer for the Pinnacle weekly based in Hollister CA from 1997 to 2006, specializing in award-winning articles on politics, the environment, science, scandals, and additionally wrote a popular political satire column (these columns were later compiled and published in Kate’s landmark 2012 memoir, Quicksilver Chronicles).