Katherine Ward

The caption under Kathy’s high school yearbook photo read, “Off Beat”. Indeed, she did march to her own beat. Katherine Brown Ward was born on July 14, 1947 to Anna and Charles (Charlie) Brown in New Brunswick, NJ, grew up on Laurel Place and graduated from New Brunswick High School.

As a young adult, Kathy worked as a telephone operator and volunteered at Middlesex General Hospital. “I fed the patients.”, she’d say. Kathy enjoyed being a social worker. She was briefly married to Mr. Ward, then divorced. She lived in various towns, among them, Morris Plains, Newark, Jamesburg.

In particular, Kathy enjoyed her apartment in rural Lafayette, sitting on a bench outdoors, chatting with her neighbors. Orange was her favorite color. She proudly hung her set of orange Rachel Ray pots and pans in the kitchen, which were mainly decoration, because she just as soon pop a burrito into the microwave from her stash of frozen food.

Kathy was a night owl watching all the late night shows, and slept late. Coffee was one of her life’s pleasures, especially with cake.

As Kathy’s health necessitated, she went to live at the Homestead Rehabilitation Center in Newton. She always had beautiful long hair, but at age 71, decided to cut it, showing off her “new look”. She was content at the Homestead, where she died in her sleep early in the morning on January 23, 2022.

Kathy was predeceased by her parents, older sister Carol Brown, and her fiancé Joe. She returned to star dust and will be buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery in New Brunswick. She is survived by the Homestead Rehabilitation staff, who cared for her and about her, and by her loving cousins, Jo, Becky, and Mary.