Catherine C. Pearce 1923-2024

There are a few things Catherine learned early in her life: that being a Slovak Catholic was the center of her family’s universe, and second, that family was everything. Our grandfather Florian always said that his children were his gold. For an immigrant laborer who became a Republic Steel boiler maker, those were the tenets of their household.

Catherine, raised bilingually, attended St. Matthias Catholic Elementary in Lansingville. She then attended Woodrow Wilson High School, where she graduated in 1941. She once shared the sadness of those war years when she told us about her classmates who perished in WWII, several per page in her yearbook, including a younger cousin, Billy Bryson, whom she never forgot. During high school, Mom loved dancing at Krakusy Hall with her best friend, Mary Piroga. In her nursing home years, which were many, we often teased her about being sleepy because of dancing to Tommy Dorsey’s or Glenn Miller’s band. She smiled shyly, remembering those happier days. Catherine was also an expert seamstress in high school, but she did not show up for the fashion shows to display her winning work. She was too shy.

Catherine (aka Kay) worked during her high school years for a doctor’s family, serving as a companion for their sickly daughter evenings and weekends. She also loved cooking or baking with her mother or Aunt Florence, which helped her hone her cooking and baking skills. After she graduated high school, she worked at Strouss’ cosmetics department, where one of the workers dubbed her “Slim.” There she was called upon to model furs for wealthy clients because of her height and beauty. During the war years, Catherine worked at GE Lamp Plant on the assembly line.

When Mom was 19, our father spotted her boarding a bus in downtown Youngstown and followed her home. As he told it, he’d never seen a more beautiful woman. Catherine’s father invited Richard Pearce in, and when he left for the war at nearly 18, it was with an 8″ X 10″ graduation photo of Catherine tucked in his rucksack. The proud Marine wrote to Kay daily as he trained and was shipped to Saipan. We found those letters tied with blue satin ribbon in our mother’s treasured cedar chest, hundreds of letters, in fact, in our father’s beautiful handwriting. Mom’s letters are lost to us, perhaps tossed in the Pacific Ocean, she often joked. When the handsome Marine returned to the States at the end of the war, it was with an engagement ring for his “brown-eyed girl.” Mom was then in a quandary about finding a wedding dress during that post-war period when dresses were scarce, but there was one left on a display model, a slim chiffon gown that fit her slender figure perfectly. It is pictured here.

Catherine and Richard married on Sept. 7, 1946, her parent’s anniversary. They moved in with the Komara clan, but when Mom’s father died prematurely at age 56 of cancer, our dad purchased the house so his wife and mother-in-law could stay in the home they both cherished. They had five children, two of whom did not live beyond their first year. That was the heartbreak of their lives: the death of Richard Florian at nearly 8 months to pneumonia and the loss of Carol at 6 weeks. Besides those two children, three others joined the family. Later, the family moved to Boardman.

Catherine was the consummate homemaker, producing a delicious hot meal every day at 5:30 p.m., keeping an immaculate house with freshly laundered and pressed clothing for her family of five. No house ever smelled as good as ours when she was preparing her Sunday meals or rolling out kolache with three or four fillings. Catherine was also a champion baker. At one of her daughter’s weddings, the chef who trained at the culinary institute inquired about hiring our pastry chef, none other than our 66-year-old mother, who of course, refused the job offer. Every day before Richard came home from work, she washed, applied makeup and lipstick, and donned a freshly pressed dress. She was a dark-haired Donna Reed, minus the heels.

She made sure her children attended St. Matthias Catholic Elementary School and Cardinal Mooney, because her faith came first. Richard became a devoted convert after their fourth child was born. Our parents’ goal was that their children would graduate from college as well and were thrilled when we did. Several of us achieved master’s status, which was another accomplishment for these devoted parents.

However, our mother’s greatest gift was her devotion to her children and grandchildren. Every lunchtime, we ran home from St. Matthias to eat lunch at our family table. She established lovely traditions for the holidays with dishes from her parent’s homeland and festivities that belied our fairly humble status. We never wanted for more than what we had because our mother loved us so deeply.

When our brother’s wife in Texas birthed each of their three babies, Mom was there for weeks helping with the other children. When our sister worked as a principal, Mom cared for her two young sons tirelessly. When their last daughter endured bed-rest pregnancies, Mom was there to help with the young toddler for months, while also cooking and washing clothes at 70 years old.

Catherine also cared for her elderly mother, nursing and rehabilitating her from many strokes until she died at almost 91. She cared for our father, a retired police superintendent at Republic Steel, as he suffered from emphysema in his last years, and continued to live on Lemoyne Drive alone for seven years on a walker after our father passed. She was “waiting for Dick to return for her,” she often remarked. They had been married for 59 years when he died in 2005, a grief she endured in silence. Her bedroom looked like a shrine to the only man she ever loved.

When Catherine was about to turn 90, she experienced a debilitating stroke. She took up residence at Greenbriar Assisted Living for five years, often helping with the baking for holidays or meeting her lady friends for tea, all in her wheelchair. In 2017, she suffered a bad fall. She was weaker and far more debilitated after that event and ensuing surgery. She moved to Shepherd of the Valley in Boardman, where she remained for over six years. In time, she did not recall our names because of vascular dementia, but her face still lit up with happiness when we entered the room. Her favorite visitors were her children, her younger brother Don, or her grandchildren and extended family, especially niece Denise Komara, who always brought a smile.

Catherine leaves behind three adult children, Catherine (Mark) Wigley of Poland, who served as the main caretaker of Mom over these long years; Ralph (Sheree) Pearce of Houston, Texas: Leslie Pearce-Keating of Wooster; seven grandchildren, Adam (Kendra) Wigley; Logan (Danielle) Wigley; Brian (Lindsey) Pearce; Matthew (Kari) Pearce; Bridget (Michael) Vasquez; Michael (Courtney) Keating, Laura Katherine Keating; and nine great-grandchildren.

Her parents and three brothers, Ray, Ed and Don, all preceded her in death, as did her young siblings, Basil, Ralph, Elaine and Anna during her childhood.

If you were to unpack our mother’s cedar chest, you would see all that mattered to Catherine Pearce: her wedding dress and veil; prayer books and communion clothing from her three children; baby clothes from her son and daughter who passed; baptismal wear; tiny shoes; letters from her love at war; and photos and cards from events so very long ago. Catherine gave all she had, living a life of love and service to those she loved.

The family, on behalf of Catherine, would like to thank Shepherd of the Valley nurses and staff for their loving care during the many years there. Special gratitude is also extended to chaplains the Rev. Gary Rozier from Hospice of the Valley and Elder Cardell A. Clay from Shepherd. Both these men upheld her faith even during the hardest of times.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 11 a.m. Monday, May 13, 2024, at St. Matthias Church, with calling hours from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m., in the church vestibule.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Catherine’s memory, because of her deep love for children, or to Hospice of the Valley.

Professional arrangements are being handled by the Higgins-Reardon Funeral Homes, Poland Chapel.

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