Mary Kathryn White

Mary is predeceased by her husband of 68 years, William “Bill” J. White, Jr., and her brother William Kruse. She is survived by: her daughter Mary Jo White (Stephen Loyd); Jonathan (Virginia) White; Michael (Alice) White; and Thomas (Karen) White; and her sister Margaret Kruse Mooney; grandchildren Alex (Valerie), Julia (Yair), Jake (Caitlin), William (Trinity), Jonathan Jr., Nicolas (Emma), Sara, Martine, Harrison, Michaela (Jack), Madeline (Rob), and Maya; and great-grandchildren Noah, Rafa Naomi, Oliver, Abigail, Eva, Charlotte, Harriet; and Christian, and many nieces and nephews, and grand-pets.

Her strong faith in a loving and merciful God was the core of her life. Mary was a member of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Longmont. In each community where she lived, she became an active member of the Catholic church, usually serving as a reader and performing committee work.

Mary grew up in a large family home in Queens, NY, with grandparents on the first floor and her parents and siblings living upstairs. Mary knew she wanted to be a teacher before leaving elementary school.

She has worked since her teens, starting with a job selling hats at Macy’s in Herald Square, even modeling them for customers. In her senior year of high school, she started working as a tour guide at NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center, a job she kept through college.

Mary attended high school at Mary Louise Academy, an all-girls college-preparatory school in Brooklyn, and later earned a BA from St. Joseph College for Women, a few blocks away. Upon graduating, she started teaching at a public high school near her home in Queens.

Mary and Bill moved to Catskill, NY, to raise their four children, while Mary completed two master’s degrees at College of St. Rose in Albany, NY. Mary returned to the workforce when the youngest started a full-day school schedule. For almost 30 years, Mary worked in the Catskill Public School system, initially as the district’s first and only speech therapist, then as Chair for the Committee on the Handicapped, managing individual education plans and placements for every student in the district with special needs.

As a Depression-era child, she learned to be frugal and valued the meaning of work. Reading was Mary’s favorite pastime. She learned her love of books from her mother, a voracious reader. She saw friends as a blessing and a very important part of her life, and traveling with Bill occupied most of her retirement years.

A Mass celebrating Mary’s life will be held at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Longmont on Friday, December 4, at 2:30 pm followed by a Reception and Eulogy at 3:30 pm. In keeping with her wishes, interment will be at Mountain View Cemetery in Longmont, CO.

For a lasting memory, please consider memorial donations to St John’s Food Bank in Longmont

(www.johnthebaptist.org) or the Marianist Mission (www.marianist.com).