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Catherine Rosalie Verhaegen died on June 3, 2017, at The Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. She was 90.
Affectionately known as “Kay” to her friends and coworkers, Ms. Verhaegen was born on March 8, 1927, in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was the daughter of Christine Matheson of Nova Scotia and William Verhaegen of the Netherlands. Her parents migrated to Montauk in the early 1920s where her father found work painting the new Montauk Manor. Her mother returned to Nova Scotia for Ms. Verhaegen’s birth, necessitating her becoming a naturalized citizen in the 1940s.
Ms. Verhaegen grew up in Montauk. In the early years, the family lived in the former Shepard Neck Apartments on Second House Road, a family of five at the time in a two-room unit; the parents slept in the kitchen, the kids in the other room. Later on the family lived on Old Montauk Highway overlooking the ocean. She attended the Montauk School, where she rode out the Hurricane of 1938; her mother joined them at the school during the height of the storm. She graduated from East Hampton High School in 1944, and received a partial scholarship to attend Ryder College in New Jersey. Her room and board was earned through arrangements with local families.
She remained in Trenton, New Jersey for the next 50 years. With her cat’s eye glasses, she worked as a secretary, during the “Mad Men” era, briefly at Winner Manufacturing, before taking a job as a secretary for the Pennsylvania Railroad, later known as Conrail. She retired in 1987 after 40 years with the railroad.
She was a faithful, dedicated member of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton for more than 46 years, serving as clerk, president of the corporation, and a delegate to the Presbytery. She also added her voice to the choir and was an officer in the Women’s Association. In retirement, she stayed busy in the church and running errands for her older neighbors and friends.
In 2004 she returned to East Hampton to be near her late sister, Dorothy Osborn, living on Oakview Highway. There she was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of East Hampton. In 2009, during the 80th Anniversary celebration of the Montauk Presbyterian Church, she was honored as one of the first babies baptized in that church.
Ms. Verhaegen enjoyed attending church every Sunday, playing cards, and listening to music. She was an avid letter writer. Her niece Hilary Osborn Malecki of East Hampton said, “She was always cheerful, and willing to help people. She lived a simple life, was frugal with her money and was an impressive saver. She was an eternal optimist, who always saw the bright side of things.”
She is survived by a sister, Gail Sterling, of Mississippi; and seven nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by a sister, Dorothy Osborn, of East Hampton; a brother, Charles Verhaegen, of Babylon and Florida; and a teenage sister, Florence Verhaegen, who died in 1944 during a meningitis outbreak at Montauk’s Camp Hero. Ms. Verhaegene suffered from dementia in her later years and since December 2014, had been living at The Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, July 23, at 11:30 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of East Hampton. Her ashes will be interred alongside her parents’ graves at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.
Memorial donations may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of East Hampton, 120 Main Street, East Hampton, New York, 11937.
on Jun 7, 2017