Colleen Ungeheuer Cayton

Colleen Cayton-Maddox, 67, a Realtor with Washington Fine Properties in Washington, DC, died at her home on Kent Island on Sunday, Feb. 8, after a three-and-a-half-year battle with metastatic lung cancer. Cayton-Maddox was born to Donald and Hilma Ungeheuer and raised in Centerville, Kan. There, she learned the deep-seated roots of American virtues, hard work, a love of the land and its people and a belief that she could make a difference. Cayton-Maddox raised and sold cattle to help pay her way through Kansas State University. She was a member of 4H, a cheerleader and a runner-up Miss Kansas. Early in her career, she came to Washington and worked as an aide to Congressman Joe Skubitz, R-Kan. She then went to work for Sen. William D. Hathaway, D-Maine. In 1968, when Congress was looking for seasoned staffers to work with the eight recently elected black congressmen, Cayton-Maddox volunteered to work for Rep. Bill Clay Sr., D-Mo. During this very tumultuous time, marked by the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobbie Kennedy, she worked as Clay’s administrative assistant and speechwriter. Indeed, she penned many of his more inflammatory speeches dealing with racial injustice. Later in her career, she joined her then-husband, Wendell Cayton, in the ski-area management business, which took them to New York, New Hampshire and later to Denver, where she became development director of Denver Public Libraries. She then moved to Del Mar, Ca., to a management consulting position with a large firm in the nuclear energy industry that was later absorbed by Halliburton. It was then back to DC in 1988 to marry Ruffin Maddox, a homebuilder and Realtor. She subsequently joined him in the real estate industry in 1996. Cayton-Maddox is survived by her mother, Hilma Ungeheuer, her two brothers, Dillard and David Ungeheuer, and sister Beth Wilson, all of Centerville, Kan. She is also survived by her two sons, Schuyler and Sean Cayton of Denver and Colorado Springs, Co., respectively, as well as two grandchildren, Abigail and Harper of Colorado Springs. She is also survived by her husband of 21 years, Ruffin Maddox and his two daughters and two grandsons. A celebration of her life will be held at the home, 402 Queens Court, Stevensville, Md. on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, from Noon to 4 p.m. Those wishing to send condolences, contributions in the name of Colleen U. Cayton may be sent to Union Wesley United Methodist Church Outreach Ministry, P.O. Box 153, Chester, Md., 21619.

Colleen Ungeheuer Cayton

July 2, 1941 - February 8, 2009