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Catherine S. “Chic” Wilson of Quogue and Manhattan died of heart failure on October 14, at her Manhattan apartment, with her husband, Edwin Wilson, at her side.
Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she grew up in Durham, North Carolina, where she attended Peace College.
While at Peace she met Robert Leavenworth, a student at Duke University Law School, and upon Mr. Leavenworth’s graduation the two were married in the Duke Chapel. They later moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where Mr. Leavenworth joined a law firm and later became a probate judge.
In New Haven, she was a member of the Junior League and active in a number of volunteer organizations. Upon the early death of her husband, she moved to New York City, where she was employed by the firm of Cresap, McCormick and Paget.
In 1967, she married Edwin Wilson, a teacher, writer and theater critic for the Wall Street Journal. She attended the Art Students League and later graduated from the New York School of Interior Design. She began her own interior design business, Catherine Stuart Inc., and over the next 39 years she decorated homes, apartments, offices and country clubs, chiefly in Manhattan, Connecticut, and Long Island.
For art collector Blake Byrne she designed the interior of a home in Bedford, an apartment in Manhattan and a second apartment in Paris, France. For publisher William Reilly she was responsible for the interior design of two homes, one in Quogue and another on Sutton Place in New York, the latter being the subject of a feature article in Architectural Digest.
Ms. Wilson recently came out of retirement to join two colleagues in designing the interior of the renovated Quogue Field Club.
She was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club, the Linville NC Golf Club, the Quogue Beach Club and the Quogue Field Club.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter, Joannie Cambron; two grandchildren, Bonnie and Matt Cambron; and two nephews, John and Robert Stuart.
A private family burial will be held in Quogue. A memorial service will be held at a later date at the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City.
Memorial donations may be made to East End Hospice, eeh.org.
on Oct 18, 2016