Katie Sue Ruth Huggins

Katie Sue Ruth Huggins was born August 10, 2004. On November 2, 2026 Katie passed away holding her mothers hand peacefully, surrounded by love after a courageous week-long battle fighting for her life due to a motorcycle accident.

As a family that was created through adoption, we don’t have a lot of stories about Katie’s early life. We have a few pictures of a sweet, chubby cheek, blue-eyed beauty. She was adopted by Amie Huggins on Halloween Day in 2012 at 7 years old. She chose to dress as Dorothy for her costume just so she could have the Toto dog accessory. Dogs were always a part of her life and grew to become her favorite place to find comfort and love.

The first time Amie met Katie was in 2012 at a local Chick-fil-A. The second that sweet girl walked into the restaurant Amie’s heart just knew Katie was meant to be hers. Katie spoke frequently about how she was meant to be a Huggins and immediately belonged to the family with her sass and humor - not to mention her love of eating peanut butter one full spoonful at a time. It was at this meeting that we first saw Katie run like a dog, something her family will always remember her for! She will also be remembered for her sassiness, her sweet heart and her willingness to love deeply. During her 15 years as a Huggins, she played hard and was loved fiercely.

Katie graduated from Clearfield High in 2022. She loved all things that required her to be hands-on and use that smart brain of hers. As a teenager she grew to love cars and motorcycles. When Katie had a passion for something she truly committed to it all. That includes learning all things mechanics and how to fix her own cars and bikes. If you were lucky she would fix yours too with long nails on and all. With her love for animals she taught herself how to groom them. We know the first few dogs were a little scary looking but she kept going at it until she perfected it. Katie was an artist. She loved to draw when she was a little girl and when she found her passion for cars and motorcycles she drew those in such intricate detail. If you were a chosen lucky one, she drew your vehicle if she thought it was cool enough.

Katie is leaving behind her mom, Amie Huggins, three sisters (Gabbi (Karina), Jennae and Juleigh-Anna), two brothers by choice (Nick and Nate), five nieces and nephews (Madelyn, Kosi, Rosie, Dylann and Nico) as well as two amazing grandparents (Leigh and Ruth), six sets of Aunts and Uncles, many cousins and so many friends. She is preceded in death by Mark Pizzouli who was the person Katie considered to be the closest person she had to a dad. We find so much comfort in knowing that she is with him and that he is both so excited to see her and so heartbroken it was this soon. We are grateful knowing there are additional family members who have already passed and find so much comfort in knowing she continues to be loved by family even if she isn’t here with us physically.

Katie was always a huge supporter of organ donation and as her last gift to the world, gave the gift of life to as many people as she could by sharing a true and literal piece of herself. We find so much strength and peace in knowing that she will live on and other families will get the opportunity to have some aspect of Katie in their lives now as well. There is so much hope in knowing that the worst day for us was the best day for so many others!

Katie will be terribly missed and leaves a gaping hole in all our hearts. We didn’t get nearly as much time with her as we wanted; but we are so blessed to have been able to celebrate all the connection, love and community as we possibly could with her during her short 15 years with us.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Raise the Future or CAWS in Katie’s name. Katie was not directly placed with Amie by Raise the Future, whose mission is to connect youth waiting in foster care with the adults who become stable forces in their lives, and to support those relationships so that they last for a lifetime. However, their mission is exactly what Katie and her mom found within each other. A lifelong connection and a forever family. CAWS is an animal rescue organization that Katie loved and supported.

http://Raisethefuture.org/donate
https://caws.org/donations/caws2025/

We would also like to generously thank the doctors and nurses in the McKay Dee ICU unit. Their love and devotion to their work made it survivable for her family. We especially want to thank Dr. Anderson, Dr. Winters and Dr. Finlayson, NP Brooke Montgomery, her nurses Baylee, Jamie, Paige, Karson, Courtney and McKayla who held Amie throughout and more importantly as Katie passed. We also would like to give a special thanks for all the respiratory therapists and ER staff who cared so lovingly for Katie, even when we had fluids showered on us. We thank the organ donation team and all those who cried with us, laughed with us and helped us love her to the very end. We want to publicly acknowledge the many, many people and friends who brought food, who kept up with all the Diet Coke, apple juice and coffee requests we asked for. We thank those who kept babies and loved them when we were not able to be there because we were supporting Katie. We deeply felt your love, your thoughts and your prayers. We would not have survived this experience if it wasn’t for all your support and love. We truly do not have words to express the level of gratitude we have for you!

While Katie will be missed, her life touched so many and the world was so blessed to have her be a part of it. For all of you who knew and loved Katie, thank you for showing her what love and connection really looks like. She truly was the light of our lives.

A public viewing will be held on Thursday, November 5th, from 6-8 PM at Myers Mortuary in Layton. Services will be held privately with family. The family is grateful for the understanding of privacy during this difficult time.