Katherine A. Noone was born March 11, 1939, minutes after her twin, Sr. Patricia Noone (deceased).  She was a daughter of Patrick and Maureen Maguire Noone.  The loss of both parents to kidney disease (her Mother when she was in 5th grade and Father when a Freshman in College) contributed to the strong loving bond between the sisters, a grounding force that colored their lives.  Kathy grew up on Central Park South, a daughter of New York.  

Kathy grew up on Central Park South; virtually all her life she was a New Yorker.  She attended St. Paul Elementary School and Cathedral High School, both in Manhattan, graduating from the College of Mount Saint Vincent with a BA in English. (The Mount is on the last street in the Bronx, right on the Hudson.) For most of her adult life she lived in Stuyvesant Town, 14th Street in Lower Manhattan.  After graduation she entered the Sisters of Charity of New York for a period of time.  Her doctorate in English Literature was from Syracuse University; she did post-doctoral work in the writing program at Columbia.

Her life’s work teaching English, first to high school girls and when two schools merged boys as well, began at St. Gabriel’s (later joined with Blessed Sacrament) in New Rochelle.  An administrator said that Katherine became the favorite of everyone at the school and observed that Kathy could go from teaching the least able Sophomores to Senior AC students with ease.  She served as Chair of the English Department and once led the fight to keep the library from closing.   Her excellence as a teacher was recognized at an awards dinner – various awards for sports prowess, and hers as teacher of the year; it was a spirited celebration.

Katherine was deeply devoted to teaching.  She kept careful notes of every book she read so as to guide young readers in their encounters with literature.  Such notes also informed her participation in various Book Clubs, even one at Five Star, her residence of the past five years.  Commuting to New Rochelle from lower Manhattan meant a lifetime of very, very early morning train commutes, with a long hike from the station to the school.  Stories of these travels were told with humor, never complaint.

In addition to the great works of English literature, Katherine became deeply knowledgeable of young adult literature, a genre of its own that emerged in recent years.  She worked as an editor for the on-line newsletter, VOYA,  reviewing recent young adult publications.  Of course, this further enriched her teaching, her vocation of leading young people into the world of books.

As children, the Noone sisters vacationed at the shore; their love for the ocean continued all their lives.  Each summer they went together to the same small hotel in Spring Lake, NJ, and at times with friends to Cape Cod.  Katherine had a circle of lifetime friends, celebrating with them all the birthdays, holidays, and seasons of the year, and a larger group gathered over time.  Both sisters were avid sports fans, Kathy the Yankees, Pat the Mets. Since Pat’s death this year, Kathy could not understand why with Pat’s intercession the Mets were not doing better.  Though so much a city person, Kathy loved plants.  In Stuyvesant town, vines were trained across the windows and down to the floor; at Five Star her indoor garden continued.  Her love and care for her plants, students, friends, had their fullest flowering in her care for her sister, especially in the last five years of multiple challenges.

Reposing Thursday, January 4th 2024 from 1 - 4pm at Riverdale-on-Hudson Funeral Home, 6110 Riverdale Avenue, Bronx NY. Mass of Christian burial will be 9:45 am Friday, January 5th, at St. Margaret of Cortona Church. Interment Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Hawthorne NY.