Catherine Bentkowski

Catherine Jean Bentkowski

Beloved wife, mother of our children, a devoted companion and confidante, Catherine Jean Bentkowski, passed away with her family by her side on October 21, 2019. Catherine was born in the Kenmore N.Y. a suburb of Buffalo to Hugh Anderson and Macmillan (Mille) MacGregor Anderson on July 16, 1926. Her early years were in the Anderson's loving home in the Kenmore community. She graduated from the Kenmore High School and then went on to the Alleghany College in Meadville, Pennsylvania graduating with high honors in Sociology. After graduation she was employed by the Erie County in the Social Service (welfare) Department visiting clients in the steel manufacturing suburb of Lackawanna. She met her future husband, John, in an evening school where both studied the Russian Language. After a four year courtship, she and John were married on December 26, 1953. They came to Cornell University for John's graduate studies and then moved for two year teaching assignment in Baltimore where their son James was born. They returned to Ithaca for John's Cornell employment, and acquired home in the city where they lived for 61 years to the present time. Cathy was a stay at home Mom making our home for their children, James, Steven, Peter (Lisa) and Elizabeth until their schooling moved them into the high school when the children could manage by themselves. Catherine is also survived by her two grandsons, John III and Daniel, children of Jim who passed away in January 2019. She was employed at Cornell in her later years in the Poultry Science School and the Law School. Cathy excelled in cooking, baking and sewing learning that latter trade from her mother who was seamstress. She loved classical music, the newspaper, good books and the opera as she and John traveled to New York to hear and see the performance at the Metropolitan Opera house. The family will miss hers lovely smile, her grubby appearances in jeans, digging in the garden, with rolled up shirt sleeves or in a sweat shirt and rubber boots and also the sight of her hanging up the wash on a sunny day. The commitment and short viewing service will be for the immediate family. Those who would like to make a donation in Catherine's memory should consider Planned Parenthood or Hospice Ithaca.

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