Madelyn K Young

Madelyn Kitchura Young, 87, of Monroe CT, loving wife and closest friend and partner to Arthur William Young died Monday evening of complications from a recent illness. “Madie and Art” were known throughout the State of Connecticut for their leadership role in the International Order of Rainbow for Girls and locally for their long and active participation in the Monroe Congressional Church, Washington Lodge and Lady Martha Chapter, Order of Eastern Star. They moved to Monroe from Bridgeport in 1957 into a home they had built on the old Mansfield Farm off of Turkey Roost Road. It was here they raised their three children, Robert, Douglas and Pamela. They sang in the choir together and frequently performed as a duet for weddings and social events. They were also known for their comedy skits performed at the Connecticut State Rainbow Assembly.Madelyn has served the Masonic Organization with untiring effort and grace. She wore many hats, including past matron of Lady Martha 103 and Mother Advisor for Monroe Assembly No 33, She served on the local advisory board for Rainbow, as well as the State Advisory and Executive Board. Madelyn was well known for her work with young people, becoming addressed throughout New England simply as “Mom Young.” Besides being a stalwart member of the Masonic Order, Madelyn was also a good Christian. In her younger years, in the Congregational Church, she served on many boards as chairperson or committee member.Madelyn was born in the coal mining town of Jermyn Pennsylvania in1922 as the first child to Stephen Kitchura and Mary Keklak. Steven had lost his wife to the 1918 influenza and Mary had lost her husband to a ruptured appendix, leaving each with seven children. Steven and Mary married, combined their two families and over the years added seven additional children. After finishing high school, Madie gave up a scholarship to college to take care of her mother who had taken seriously ill and help raise her younger brother and sisters. During the War, she came East to Bridgeport with an older brother and three sisters and took a job at the Bridgeport Brass Company in the spectrographic lab. It was here that she met Arthur who was a chemist with the Brass Company. They married in 1946, with their families pooling ration cards to get enough eggs and flour for a cake and gas enough for Arthur’s family to make the trip to Jermyn for the wedding.With the birth of their first son in 1948, Madelyn became a housewife and mother until the late 1960s when she became a baker at the Monroe Consolidated School where she created prized confections until eventually retiring in the mid eighties. That became the start of their travel period with their own children graduated from college, they served as advisors and chaperones to Order of Rainbow bus trips and excursions throughout the Continental United States. With the travel bug, they treated themselves to trips to Alaska and the Caribbean.Madelyn is survived by her husband Arthur, son Douglas, son Robert and his wife Winifred, and daughter Pam and her partner Joan. She is also survived by her brother George Kitchura and wife Alice, sister Deloris Levine, sister Hazel Sokalsky and husband Pete, numerous nieces and nephews, seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She was recently predeceased by her sisters Arleen Besket or Fairfield, CT and Rose Utter of Jermyn, PA.Calling hours will be on Saturday, November 14, from 4 to 8 PM at Spadaccino and Leo P. Gallagher and Son Community Funeral Home in Monroe Connecticut. A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held at the Monroe Congregational Church on Saturday, November 28th at2 pm.We shall miss “Mom Young” dearly, and thank God for allowing us to be part of her life.