Visiting: Wednesday (9/19) 6-9 PM
Mass: Thursday (9/20) 9:30 AM @ Holy Innocents Church
Cemetery: Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, NY)

-    -    -    COMPLIMENTARY VALET PARKING AVAILABLE    -    -    -

Catherine Marie Moriarty, age 89, originally of Brooklyn but recently residing in Montville, New Jersey, passed away on Sunday, September 16, 2018. She was born to the late Terence and Susan (Fahey) Moriarty on May 27, 1929. She had two sisters, Mary (age 87) and Theresa (d. 2012), and an older brother, James (d. 2006).

Catherine was born in Brooklyn, where she attended Holy Innocents Elementary School and then Catherine McCauley High School. She loved spending her summers in Peekskill, New York, where her father had built a vacation house for the family "in the country."

When she finished high school, she worked at various banks in Brooklyn, before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, in the early 1950s to relieve her severe asthma. At that time, she became very active in the Catholic ministry to the Mexican American community as a volunteer with the Sacred Heart Workers. It was here that she began a lifelong love of Mexican people and culture.

Upon her return to New York in 1952, she began working at Marsh & McLennan Insurance Company in New York City. She worked hard but also loved socializing with friends at the Stork Club, the Algonquin, and "21." During this time, she also cultivated her passion for travel with trips to Mexico, Brussels for the 1958 World's Fair, France, Germany, Italy, and, of course, Ireland.

In 1969, Catherine married Ramón Baldonado of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Though their marriage was short, their friendship was deep and lasted until his death in 1999. They had one daughter, Kathleen.

Catherine worked hard as a single mom in the 1970s, managing to work full time and put Kathleen through twelve years of Catholic school and, finally, through college. After that, Catherine retired from the insurance business in 1993.

During her retirement Catherine was a volunteer at St. John's Hospital in Queens. She spent much time traveling with her cousins to various Irish events in the Northeast and Florida, visiting her friends in Phoenix and in California, and helping to plan numerous Moriarty family reunions.

Catherine had a special gift for helping people. No matter where she was, she could always detect when someone needed a hand, whether they were in distress or just needed someone to hold open a door. And Catherine was always ready to assist.

She loved dressing to the nines as much as pulling weeds out of her sister's yard. As long as she was busy, she was happy.

She was a devoted friend, sister, cousin, and, above all, an exemplary mother. She adored her grandchildren and all the pets that came and went through the years.

Catherine's legacy lives on in her daughter Kathleen (Baldonado) Reed, son-in-law Adam Reed, grandchildren Ella and Sean Reed, her sister Mary (Moriarty) D'Addario, stepson Tom Baldonado, and many cousins and friends.

In lieu of flowers please do something Catherine would have done: volunteer in the community, rescue a stray, cheer up a stranger, simply make someone laugh, or make a donation to help obliterate Alzheimer's disease once and for all at https://alzfdn.org/support-us/donate/ Then, when you're done, have an Irish Coffee and raise your glass to the once and always beautiful Catherine.