“I’ll have a vodka tonic in an interesting glass,” she said to servers all over the world. To those of us lucky enough to have shared a meal with Claire Marie (Weber) Prendergast that was a familiar line. Claire lived her life on her own terms exemplified by the glass request, her array of beautiful hats she wore everywhere, and her willingness to share her views from art to politics to religion to all.
Claire was born in Wichita Kansas on January 18, 1927 and passed away peacefully on July 3, 2020 at home at her son Luke and his wife Kim’s house in Philadelphia where she had moved in March. She was the daughter of Bill and Marie Weber and the loving eldest sister of Joanne McGann and Patricia Saar. Her family moved from Kansas to Pittsburgh where she spent her childhood and young adult life. She attended Seton Hill College and her alma mater remained important to her throughout her life. She stayed in contact with her college friends for over 60 years and ultimately became the last surviving member of her graduating class. She received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Pittsburgh and worked for many years as a social worker in the city.
She married Jack Prendergast on December 26, 1961. As Jack was a traveling salesmen they moved from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis where their sons JP and Luke were born. When Jack took a job with Fred’s Frozen Foods it required several more moves to Kansas City, Mo., Fort Wayne, In., and finally to Berwyn, PA. What is striking about all of these moves was Claire’s ability to become a central presence in her parish, the schools her sons attended, and in the neighborhood. She established an array of extensive social networks wherever she was and opened her home to any and all. Just one example of this is her welcoming of her son JP’s young little brothers from the Big Brother Program. To this day JP still hears from his little brothers who share their memories of their time with Mr. and Mrs. P. She had a great gift of hospitality and loved nothing more than a party and to gather friends and family and acquaintances around her, making everyone feel welcome in her home for meals, bridge games, pool parties, and family reunions. After her passing the family has received many kind and thoughtful notes about how she lit up a room and made each person feel included.
Throughout her life she volunteered countless hours to causes and organizations dear to her heart and deep abiding Catholic faith. She taught art to children ranging from Head Start classrooms in Kansas City to eighth graders at St. Monica’s in Berwyn. She was an active volunteer with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity for many years and one of the highlights of her long life was meeting Mother Teresa. She also volunteered in many organizations at St. Monica’s, her parish church for over 40 years. After Jack died in 2008 she started a new club at St. Monica’s called The Merry Widows to offer support, prayer, and social activities to widows in the parish. This continues to thrive and is a lasting legacy to her great faith.
She also inspired in her children the importance of giving to others and impressed this upon them throughout their lives. It definitely stuck as JP has spent his life as a human rights activist and Luke as a teacher in Philadelphia.
Claire loved to travel and shared many memorable stories of her overseas trip with a friend as a young woman, her many travels with her husband Jack, a family visit to Ireland with her sons and other relatives, a special trip to Italy with her son JP, and her love of the Jersey Shore and of oceans anywhere. When anyone was visiting the beach should always say, “Look at the ocean for me.”
Another lasting legacy of Claire’s was the art she produced. She was a prolific painter and became very accomplished over the years, producing religious art, landscapes, seascapes and paintings of her grandsons. She had her sketchbook with her everywhere and loved to paint and draw by the ocean. Her paintings hang in the houses of friends and relatives and we hope she is remembered when people look at her work.
She was a devoted mother to her sons JP and Luke, attending their many sporting events. Luke remembers her sitting on a blanket beside countless soccer fields, baseball diamonds and basketball courts writing notes and cards, occasionally looking up and saying, “Go team!” She was also an incredible grandmother to her grandsons Dylan and Michael and shared too many to count special times with them exploring, playing cards (she almost always won!), swimming, and going on adventures with their loving Nana and Papa. She welcomed her newest grandson Simeon, born to JP and his wife Sia in February 2020, and spent a beautiful day together her baby grandson before she passed a week later.
She often stressed the importance of staying connected to family and friends and to make the effort to gather together. Claire, Mom, Nana, Mrs. P, Aunt Claire, Aunt Cookie: We’ll do our best to continue your efforts of your long and inspirational life.
She will be greatly missed by her family, her many godchildren, nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews, and friends.
A private burial will be held on July 8, 2020. The family is planning to hold a memorial mass when possible.
The family has received requests of how to honor her legacy. If anyone would like the following two organizations are special to Claire and her family.
The Sentry: JP founded this non-profit organization with mom’s friend George Clooney. The Sentry follows the money of war criminals and state looters in Africa in order to create some level of justice and accountability for their international crimes.
Nationalities Services Center: Her grandson Michael works at NSC, an organization that serves immigrants and refugees in the Greater Philadelphia area.
EULOGY FOR CLAIRE PRENDERGAST
J.P. Prendergast
July 8, 2020
One of the bittersweet things in the aftermath of my mom’s passing has been reading the notes from all the wonderful friends and family who have been part of her life. It has been a true outpouring of love.
But that is sort of the easy part of life, especially for a gregarious person like my mom, who was the life of every party she attended, and made life a party wherever she was.
The notes I have also treasured since her passing have been those from the “little brothers” from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program who came and stayed at her house for years. All of them, to a person, said the same thing when they learned of her passing: “Mrs. P was like a mother to me.”
I was thinking about that central element of Christianity, where Jesus says, “What you do unto the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.”
THAT is the hard part. That is the part that you have to go out of your way for. That is the part that can often be uncomfortable.
And yet, time and again, that is where I found my mom.
I remember in Kansas City going into this basement classroom where mom taught art to Head Start students. She volunteered in a public school in a neighborhood far from where we lived. And I remember the amazing and beautiful drawings she coaxed out of those little kids in the poorest part of Kansas City, encouraging them to be artists, if only for a brief moment.
I remember going to the soup kitchen run by Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity near Philadelphia, and how the mothers who were living in the homeless shelter would light up when Mrs. P came to see them with Mr. P. Dad told the jokes, but Mom brought the love.
I remember going to the residence of the contemplative order of disabled nuns who lived near us, and how much the sisters cherished mom’s visits, in her fancy hats, yes, but also because of her unyielding faith.
I mostly remember how I’d bring my “little brothers” Michael and David and James and Khayree and Nasir and Tauheed and Rasheed and Jamaar to the Berwyn house. And how she loved each one in a way that made them feel so special, so cared for.
Mom’s faith was the most important thing to her, and she lived her faith in ways that in the aggregate, with the benefit of hindsight, I am in awe of.
In closing, a personal note. There have been periods in my life where I have been lost, and my faith went dark. My mother never gave up on me. She prayed relentlessly for me, because that is an essential part of her faith, and she never stopped believing in her prodigal son’s return. Her profound commitment to my redemption was a critical part of my own faith journey. Perhaps an indispensable one.
Like Peter, she followed Jesus’ example of being a fisher of souls.
Like the Good Samaritan, she didn’t cross to the other side of the road and turn away when she saw someone in need.
Like St. Monica with her son St. Augustine, she never gave up on me and my salvation.
Claire Prendergast was an incredible friend, aunt, cousin, daughter, sister, parishioner, grandmother, and mother to so many during her extraordinary 93 years of life.
Each place she has been she left a little brighter.
Each person she touched she left with a little more joy.
And to all of us, she gave her beautiful heart, so full of love.
Goodbye and Godspeed, beloved Mom.
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