Katherine S. LeVeque, who owned the LeVeque Tower until 2011 and revived the Palace Theatre in the late 1970s, died early Wednesday at her family home in Galena, Ohio. She was 87.

Katherine S. LeVeque, who owned the LeVeque Tower until 2011 and revived the Palace Theatre in the late 1970s, died early Wednesday at her family home in Galena, Ohio. She was 87.

LeVeque was a business leader and �a gentle spirit,� said Columbus Foundation President Douglas Kridler.

�What�s interesting about Kathy, among many other things, is she was forced into a role because of the tragic loss of her husband, and she rose to the challenge with grace,� Kridler said.

�She was a successful businessperson and also an inspiration as one of the most-prominent role models for women in business in Columbus.�

Born Katherine Segars on Oct. 29, 1926, in Hartsville, S.C., she married Frederick W. LeVeque in 1949.

Two years after her husband died in a plane crash in 1975, LeVeque bought the LeVeque-Lincoln Tower from a trust. LeVeque�s father-in-law, Columbus businessman Leslie L. LeVeque, and John Lincoln, founder of Cleveland-based Lincoln Electric, had bought the iconic tower in 1945.

She renamed the building the LeVeque Tower and lived in a 41st-floor apartment there until 2011, when she sold the building to a local investment group headed by attorney Robert Meyers and developer Don Casto. The LeVeque Tower has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.

�She was an amazing lady,� said son Colin LeVeque. �She was one of those people who, when it was raining outside, she would say, �It�s going to be sunny soon.� She had that kind of positive attitude.

�She was competitive but had that Southern charm and graciousness about her,� he said. �We�d have board meetings on the 41st floor of the tower, and she would have coffee, doughnuts, scones. She�d disarm everybody � and then she would get what she wanted.�

When she took possession of the city�s first skyscraper, LeVeque discovered to her surprise that the landmark building at Broad and Front streets also included the Palace Theatre.

�I didn�t know that we even owned the Palace when my husband died,� LeVeque said in an interview with The Dispatch in 2007. �Even his attorney didn�t know. But Phil Sheridan (author of Those Wonderful Old Downtown Theaters) called and said: �You know you own the Palace Theatre. Can I walk you through it?�??�

The walk proved momentous: LeVeque decided to invest $3 million in restoring the landmark.

�Phil took me from the very bottom to the very top,� she said. �And I said, �We�ll just have to save it.� So I�d sell a few acres of land to restore the Palace Theatre. There was so much to be done, but it�s such a beautiful theater.�

The Palace reopened as a performing-arts hall in 1980. LeVeque sold the Palace to CAPA in 1989 so that the theater would be operated and maintained for the community�s use.

�It was a 99-year lease renewable forever, which is tantamount to ownership,� said Kridler, who was president of CAPA at the time. In 1996, the Katherine S. LeVeque lobby of the Palace was named in her honor.

LeVeque is survived by four children: Les LeVeque, Fred LeVeque, Colin LeVeque and Bonnie Moore. A daughter, Katherine �Katie� Plew LeVeque, died last year.

tferan@dispatch.com