Catherine Teefy Curran

Catherine Teefy Curran, 97, a long-time resident of New Cumberland died November 9 at Carolyn’s House in Harrisburg. Cathy was a member of St. Theresa Parish where she provided over six decades of service from the time her children attended school there beginning in the late 1950s. She was a founding member of the Social Justice Committee, and more recently the Sister Parish Committee that provides food, clothing, and other vital needs to the communities in and around Louisa, Kentucky. Cathy also helped launch Channels Food Rescue, serving as the volunteer coordinator among other duties for many years.  

Cathy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1926, to Joseph and Marie Teefy. She grew up surrounded by family that included three sisters and numerous aunts and uncles. Beginning in her childhood, she made annual trips to the Jersey shore, developing a deep affinity for the beach and the ocean. From Margate to Avalon to Barnegat Light, Cathy spent nearly every summer of her life enjoying the ocean breezes, salt water, and sunsets with her family.

She graduated from Mercy Academy High School on June 6, 1944 – D-Day. In 1950 she married James Curran and embarked on a true love story that lasted more than 66 years. Their marriage was fueled by Jim’s boundless good humor and penchant for one-liners and jokes and Cathy’s seemingly inexhaustible ability to listen to them--again and again. Throughout the decades, while raising their five children, traveling the world, and enjoying their 14 grandchildren, Jim never tired of telling anyone who would listen that she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and he was the luckiest husband. She was by his side when he died in 2016.

She is also predeceased by her sisters Geraldine Kenny, Marie deGrouchy, and Joanne Timmins.

She is survived by her children Christina (Mark McGovern), of Brooklyn, New York; Denise (Michael Baxter, M.D.), of Wyomissing; Mark (Margie Straub), of Chester, Vermont; Sally (Alan Crawford), of Richmond, Virginia; and Faith (Peter Shelly), of New Cumberland. Her grandchildren include Nia and Ian McGovern, Molly Arnold and Andrew and Addie Baxter, Miles, Oliver, James, and Spencer Curran, Ned and Tim Crawford, and Deirdre, Jack, and Nora Shelly and their spouses and significant others. Her eight great-grandchildren are August, Shai, and Jacob Kalagvano; Eleanor, Margaret, and Theodore Arnold; and Henry and Samuel Curran.

Her family would like to thank the staff and residents at The Woods at Cedar Run, where Cathy lived for the past eleven years, for their care and friendship during her final years. They are especially grateful to Donna Jones for her devotion to Cathy’s well-being.  

A visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, November 30, at Parthemore Funeral Home in New Cumberland. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Friday, December 1, at 11 a.m. at St. Theresa Catholic Church in New Cumberland.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to St. Theresa’s Sister Parish Committee in care of St. Theresa Parish, 1300 Bridge St., New Cumberland, PA 17070.

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