Kathy LaVerne Piñero

Kathy LaVerne Piñero passed away peacefully on the morning of September 15, 2025 in Saint Augustine, Florida at the age of 79 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Known to her extended family as LaVerne, to her colleagues and friends as Kathy, and to her children as Mommy, she slyly chose “Googoo” as her grandmother name, figuring her grandbabies would be able to say it early in their babbling days. And when they did, she loved to point out, with a triumphant smile, that they were talking to her.

Born on Halloween, October 31, 1945, in Burlington, North Carolina, to Flora Leath Jones and Wilson Jones, Kathy entered the world with a little magic and a great deal of grit. As the oldest of seven children, she showed her sense of responsibility early. At just 11 years old, she delivered her baby sister Marian at home entirely on her own. Always prepared, and not trusting the furnace in the funeral home where the family was living, she kept a bag packed under her bed. When the furnace caught fire, she didn’t panic: she threw her bag out of the window first, then her baby sister. Priorities. This mix of courage, foresight, and care would define her entire life.

Kathy grew up in Laurinburg until her early teens, then moved to New York City with her mother and siblings Ouida, Thermond, Wilson Jr., and Diane. In Harlem she blended her Southern roots with the energy of the city, a blend that would later mark her parenting style and her extraordinary resourcefulness. Those early years of grit and adaptation prepared her for the life she would build: a life of marriage, motherhood, and steady moves between cities and communities.

In 1963 she married Samuel Piñero. She learned to speak Spanish while married by talking to her in-laws. They had their first child, Kathy Adell (Alli) Piñero, in 1964. For ten years they lived what they thought was the best life until their firstborn son, Samuel Piñero II, arrived in 1974 and they realized life could be even better. They moved from Harlem to Saint Albans, Queens, and considering their two fantastically brilliant and well-behaved children they decided to continue their family, with Ami Lisette Piñero born in 1975 and David LeSean Piñero born in 1980. She was so thrilled with all of their wonderful children that they welcomed Luis Roberto Cruz around 1976 and he became one of her “five children.” She always said she wanted to have 10.

As the pastor’s wife at La Iglesia Reformada Discípulos de Cristo in New York City, she shepherded congregants with equal parts prayer, practicality, and humor. Ask anyone who has been the spouse of a small independent church pastor; it’s a feat of endurance and diplomacy. Kathy did it with grace and a bit of sass.

Kathy’s brilliance shone early. She earned her Registered Nursing degree from Manhattan State School of Nursing in 1971 after studying at Hunter College. She began her career caring for elderly mental health patients and quickly became head of her department; a remarkable feat in a time when women, especially women of color, were rarely given that kind of authority. Her mind never stopped moving. She sometimes audited Ami’s college science and math classes, every time outscoring the enrolled students and ruining the curve. Nursing was her vocation, but learning was her lifelong passion.

An ever-curious learner and a master at raising humans, Kathy believed childhood was a time to be nurtured and challenged. She did not hand out participation trophies. She taught her children that excellence was both expected and possible. If a child came home with a 98, she did not applaud the grade. She asked, “Where did you miss the two points? Next time bring me a 100.” And they did. She set the bar high because she knew her children would have to do more to be considered equal to their peers. And they did. She had already taught them at home far beyond the grade-level challenges they would face at school. Children and grandchildren she raised could read before they turned two and were working advanced math before they ever set foot in a classroom. Her constant crusade for education was never about perfection for its own sake. It was about equipping her children with curiosity, discipline, competitiveness and self-belief, gifts she gave as generously as her time and love. Kathy herself was absolutely brilliant. She was truly the smartest person you would ever meet in your lifetime, yet you might not realize it at first because she wore it lightly. She combined that natural intelligence with a fierce commitment to nurture. More than anything she wanted her children and grandchildren to feel her love so deeply that they would carry it with them and miss her when she was gone. And they do!

Secondary to her lifelong education commitment, Kathy loved to make things with her hands. Sewing, carpentry, and thrift shopping were her playgrounds. For her 25th anniversary vow renewal, which was also, frankly, the only wedding party she ever had, she staged a huge celebration with 25 bridesmaids and hand sewed every single custom dress herself. If you were there, you were probably in the wedding party. She later repeated that feat for Alli’s wedding. Throughout her life she often made her own clothes.

Her resourcefulness extended beyond child-rearing, dressmaking, and her career. She also taught her family exactly how to buy a new car. Kathy would walk into a dealership, point to the car she wanted, and ask for the “out-the-door” price. Then she’d ask for a phone book and a phone, call the next dealership with that number, and keep calling down the list. If the next dealer’s price wasn’t lower, she’d hang up and call another. If it was lower, she’d turn to the salesperson whose phone she was using and say, “Match it or I’m gone.” On and on she went, dealer by dealer, until she got the lowest price — and she’d buy the car that very day. In New York City, that meant ten or fifteen dealers in a row, and Kathy coolly working the phones like a stockbroker.

Kathy didn’t tell stories the way most people do. Instead of giving you the big dramatic arc, she offered quick comments and tiny snapshots of the parts that actually mattered to her. She didn’t talk about the March on Washington as a grand historic moment; she’d just say, “DC? That’s where they tear-gassed me,” and leave it at that. When asked about the civil rights movement she’d say, “They burned your sister’s coat at the dry cleaner. I loved that coat.” She would leave out that it was during the Harlem riots. And about basketball she would remark, “Basketball games are gross because the players’ sweat splashes you as they run by.” Only after you pressed her would you learn she’d been sitting front row at championship games. While someone else might brag about the history they witnessed, Kathy was interested in the people, the textures, the little things. What she valued most was time with family, and that was where her warmth and attention always went.

Later in life Kathy returned to Chadbourn, North Carolina reconnecting with her extended family and friends in the state where her story began. In her final years, she moved to Beverly Hills, Florida, where she continued her tradition of being the first to show up, the last to leave, and always the one with exactly what you needed tucked somewhere in the back of her pickup truck.

During her retirement, Kathy was famous for arriving in that pickup truck stuffed to the brim with supplies: hinges, adult diapers, baubles, shelving, cleaning supplies, and who knows what else. “If LaVerne is visiting,” people would say, “something’s going to get fixed.” She had a knack for knowing what you needed before you asked and she’d already found it on sale somewhere in Queens, Chadbourn, or Ocala.

Kathy was devoted to her family. She is survived by her children: Kathy Adell Porter (married to Mark Porter), Samuel Piñero II (married to Erin Phillips Piñero), Ami Lissette Piñero (married to Paul Mangaroo), David LeSean Piñero (married to Ronni Piñero), and Luis Roberto Cruz (married to Steve Malsky); and by her grandchildren: Taylor Alexzandra Porter, Mia Alexis Porter, Paul “PJ” David Mangaroo, Sean Gary Piñero, Samuel James Piñero III, Gavin Seth Piñero, Saoirse Grace Piñero, and Luna Rae Mangaroo. As the oldest of seven siblings, she also acted as a second mother to Ouida Joe Jones, Wilson Jones Jr., Thurmond Jones (deceased), Michelle Ward (deceased), Marian Jones-Richmond, and Pamela Jones.

To her family and friends, Kathy LaVerne Piñero was more than a mother, sister, grandmother, and friend. She was a strong woman, a real beauty in spirit and presence, a loving mother who poured herself into her children, grandchildren, and extended family, and a mentor who uplifted everyone around her. Her life was a tapestry of faith, family, humor, and everyday heroism, woven with courage and determination. She gave herself to others without hesitation and, in doing so, left every place and every person she touched brighter, stronger, and better than she found them. To us she is Mommy and Googoo. To us she is everything.

Your absence has gone through me

Like thread through a needle.

Everything I do is stitched with its color.

Separation by W.S. Merwin