Catherine Ann Callahan

Catherine Ann Callahan, beloved sister, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, died too young on September 5 at age seventy-three. Cathy was born in Wilkes-Barre, PA, to Elfrieda and Edward Devlin on September 15, 1943. She was one of the first three co-eds to graduate from LaSalle University in Philadelphia. It was there that she met and fell in love with her math teacher, Daniel Callahan. She must have swept Dan off of his feet too, because he left the Christian Brotherhood in 1971 to marry her and start a family. They moved to Lansdale, where they raised two girls into kind and generous women and gave excellent lives to several dogs and cats. Cathy was a knitter, sewer, bridge player, reader, traveler, AAUW-member, piano player, political activist, and possessor of a bone-dry sense of humor that never quite hid her sensitive, loving heart. She also worked as a bookkeeper for various companies, retiring finally from JL Freed in 2011 when she and Dan moved to Portland, Oregon, to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren. They loved to go dancing together, and they attended dances throughout the Portland area before Dan’s death in 2015. Having devoted much of her time and energy to caring for Dan, after his passing Cathy worked hard to throw herself back into life, and she completed many home projects, did volunteer work, and went dancing several times a week with Jim, her favorite dance partner. Cathy leaves behind her sister Freddie, daughters Kerry and Karen, sons-in-law David and Jeremy, grandchildren Henry and Gus, and the cats Mambo and Tango (who, she would be pleased to know, have a new adoring human to receive affection from and lash out at). The family will hold a memorial celebration at the Summerfield Clubhouse in Tigard, on September 24 from 11 am to 2 pm. Donations in Cathy’s memory can be made to the Providence Newberg Health Foundation, 1001 Providence Dr., Newberg, OR 97132.