Catherine Rose Russo

Catherine Rose Russo, beloved daughter, sister, aunt, and friend to many, left her earthly life on May 4, 2026; she was 94 years old, and the last member of her Russo family to be welcomed into Heaven. Born on December 4,1931, to parents who fled the Great Depression in Colorado for the promise of agricultural work in California, Catherine spent her youth growing up on the family farm near Moss Landing. She attended elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse in little Elkhorn, California, with her sisters Margie and Maxine and her brother Thomas. She took the bus into Salinas for high school, then attended college where she earned a bachelor’s degree in education. Her parents, August and Margaret Russo, both of whom worked early to support their families, set the standard for Catherine — after graduating from college, she helped to put her younger sisters through college. Options were limited when it came to career choices for women in the 1950s, and Catherine soon discovered that teaching was not for her. She went back to college, earned an MA in Social Work, and devoted many years to helping people find hope and help in the difficult circumstances they faced. For a significant time, she worked at Eden Hospital in the Bay Area. However, Catherine never stopped learning. After retiring, she went to Berkeley and earned her second MA in Gerontology, and afterward worked in programs that encouraged connections between senior citizens and preschool children.

Catherine’s childhood was marked by hard work, family devotion, faith, and the small town values she absorbed and practiced on the family farm. She experienced animals galore, her parents’ bountiful flower and vegetable gardens, labor in the fields, Catholic devotions, laughter and competition with her sisters, lots of reading and listening to the radio and gatherings with neighbors and friends. Catherine was the leader of the pack in her family as she was growing up, and in adulthood, she became the indispensable Auntie C and later Great Auntie to her many nieces and nephews: Margie and Hector’s six children — Linda (married to Thomas Dooling, with their daughters Carmel and Maria); Hector (father to Casandra and H.L., and later married to Napha Nantana); George (married to Monica Tamayo, with their daughter Marjie); Julie, who passed away in 1989; David (married to Madeline Mendoza, with their children Camille, Anna, and Marcus); and Paul (married to Maria Carnevale). Catherine’s sister Maxine married Evert Lindquist, and they had four children — Evert A. (married to Lesley, with their children Emma, Sarah, and Evert); Catherine (widow of Mark Anderson); Adele; and Leah (married to Charles Ramin, with their children Spencer and Calvin). Every Christmas, Auntie made a traditional stocking for her nieces and nephews, and of course any new partners who might join the celebrations. She was justifiably famous for her cookies — every Christmas she made dozens! Today, her nieces make many of the same treasured recipes: Meltaways, Nutmeg Logs, Country Raisin Gingersnaps, and Mexican Wedding Cakes. Auntie C also made homemade Galliano liqueur and a great Galliano cake, and she was a gleeful participant in the family Tom’n’Jerries tradition.

While Grandpa August and Grandma Margaret’s place represented country life and beach picnics, Auntie C’s San Francisco apartment gave her nieces and nephews a thrilling glimpse of independent life in a big city. How we loved her place! The gorgeous Italian wooden armoire and bedframe, the art she had collected in the city and on her travels, her gold-and-burnt-orange-floral couch, the velvet armchair, the small television hidden behind a framed Canadian art print gifted to her by her beloved sister Maxine (a Benjamin Chee goose). She would take us to local restaurants (we all still love the Ambrosia Cafe) and to museums and parks. We stayed with her in San Francisco often — actually, at one point or another, I think the majority of her nieces and nephews lived there for various lengths of time! Catherine was infinitely generous with her time, her apartment, her knowledge, and yes, her hard-earned wealth. She gave freely, often refusing repayment and always refusing to accept interest. Her nickname of Auntie C evolved during the college years of the Burke nephews, when she would pass them a C-note and tell them she knew how expensive it was to go to school. Catherine helped to round out our vision of womanhood. She never downplayed her intelligence; she felt free to disagree with anyone and to vie intellectually with any man or woman she met. Like everyone in the family, she played a vicious game of Hearts and poker! Auntie was a lot of fun, and she made being single look like a great life option.

One of the sadnesses of living a very long and independent life is that your surviving relatives might not be able to remember important details and people. For example, Aunt Catherine survived her dear friend Dolores, and I wish I could contact Dolores’s family to tell them how important this friendship was to Auntie. Her dear friend Neela, as well, I have no idea how to contact, but she and Catherine loved to attend the San Francisco opera and symphony together in their retirement years. Catherine helped a Nigerian couple that she met as a social worker, guiding them over a number of years until all of their large family was able to emigrate and to live together in the United States; we have some photos of them, but no name. Catherine volunteered for legal organizations, for neighborhood associations, and for community justice projects. She was a loving, giving, actively involved friend and neighbor to so many in her community.

In a perfect world, Auntie would have been able to stay in her beloved San Francisco, but life pitched her one last, great challenge — Alzheimer’s Disease. We saw her begin to get lost in the city she’d lived in for more than forty years; we saw her fear and consternation when the DMV rescinded her license on the recommendation of her doctor. We saw her argue with both of her beloved sisters about all kinds of silly things; we saw her rich and ordered life begin to disintegrate. Finally, after some efforts on the part of her sister Margie, she gave up her apartment in San Francisco to move near family in Sacramento. After COVID, she moved in with her nephew Hal and his wife Napha, and there, something utterly beautiful began to develop. Catherine entered a long plateau in her illness. Somehow, she retained her sass and sense of humor, even while jettisoning many of her memories. She relished life again, freed from anxiety and day-to-day worries, expressing her love — for family, for God, for singing, for delicious food like ice cream and Napha’s dinners, for the pets that Hal and Napha brought back into her life, for a walk in the beautiful nature around Clear Lake, for a phone call from a relative. She was able to visit her dear sister Margie, in the last couple of years of Margie’s life, without the discord that had marked the initial stages of her dementia. For all of these blessings, we are so grateful to Hector (Hal) and Napha; they repaid Auntie’s family devotion a hundredfold, and they made the last six years of her life a joy. What a gift!

We loved our Aunt Catherine, and she will always remain in our hearts. A celebration of her life will be arranged for the summer, when all the family can gather.