Catherine (“Cassie”, “Cathy”) was born on March 24, 1923, in Wichita, Kansas, the seventh of 9 children from Adolf and Elizabeth Scheier. She died peacefully on July 4, 2020. So fitting for such an “Independent Woman”! Catherine was preceded in death by all eight of her siblings, William, Francis, Gertie Waters, Ollie, Bessie Lane, Leo, Dale, Edna and her eldest daughter Mary Angel. She was very close to all her siblings and parents. She was known affectionally as “Mom” to her children, “Grandma” to her grand kids and “GiGi” to her great grand kids. Cathy was proud of all of them!
Catherine survived the Dust Bowl, the Depression and WWII where she served as a U. S. Army nurse from 1945-1948 in France and Germany. She often told stories of all three events and how they affected her and her family and friends. Cathy told of one special soldier she would write letters home for calling him a “sweet kid” as he was just 18 yrs. old. She was fortunate to travel while overseas in the Army on her weekends off with her friends. She kept in contact with a few nurses after the war up until their deaths.
Following her military service, Catherine married in 1948 and had eight children; Mary (Edward) Angel, Trudy (Drew) Foley, Judy (Paul) Roy, Matt (Shelly) Ditzhazy, Darrel Ditzhazy, Patricia (Mark) Rush, Robin (Neil) Thomas and George (Lisa) Ditzhazy. She mostly lived and raised her children in Anaheim/Fullerton, California and Livonia, Michigan. She was Grandmother to twenty-two, (in order by her children) Charles, Clinton and Christopher Angel, Corinne Angel Sweet; Travis, Adam, Jason and Steven Roy, Brianna Roy Block; Andrew and Sean Foley, Christine Foley Rothman; Michelle, Daniel & Jennifer Ditzhazy; Alexa Ditzhazy Mc Ferran; Austin Rush, Jaqueline Rush Harbor and Jozlyn Rush Pfingst; Tara and Trista Thomas and Jade Bishop (Ditzhazy). Catherine was a Great-Grandmother to 29 at her passing with more on the way!
After her divorce, she moved to Tucson in 1986 to help her ailing sister Gertie. After her sister passed, she decided to stay in Tucson and make it her home. (Safest state, she said, no hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, freezing weather and most importantly “great golf weather”.) With Tucson as her base, Catherine traveled extensively to visit friends and relatives across the United States and even made trips to Ireland and Germany with friends or relatives.
Catherine loved golfing (Two Lifetime Holes in One!!), bowling and playing cards with her Seniors card group, Fountain friends and with her kids and grand kids. She played many board games like Rummikub, Mexican Train and Yahtzee, and even more card games from poker, to golf, to pinochle and hearts. Catherine knew the rules to all those games but was a stickler on card game rules. Everyone knew her favorite saying “A card laid is a card played!” She also loved her crosswords puzzles. She received an iPad as a gift from her kids and became very familiar with it, eventually sending emojis with her emails – much to the delight of her grand kids!! She loved being able to stay in contact with her whole family and friends. She played games on it too. One she was not happy with was Pinochle. She kept complaining her “partner” was making dumb moves!
Catherine was an active member of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Tucson, Arizona. She made many friends while attending services, festivals, rummage and donut sales and taking communion to the home bound or those in the hospital. She also ushered at the Southern Arizona Light Opera and the Tucson Symphony. Once you became a friend of Cathy’s, you were her friend for life! She still heard from her Michigan and Tucson friends from her golf, church, and card group days. Catherine was still driving, grocery shopping, running errands, paying bills, keeping her checkbook up to date and visiting friends and family in Tucson at 97 years old! God Bless Her!!
Dear Mom, Grandma, GiGi, we all love you and will miss you! Until we meet again!
A mass will be held for her at Sacred Heart on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at 9:00 AM with an interment to follow at 12:00 noon at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Marana, Arizona.
In lieu of flowers, please donate what you can to Sacred Heart Catholic Church (601 E. Fort Lowell Road, Tucson, AZ 85705) or the Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery (15950 N. Luckett Road, Marana, AZ 85653 in Catherine’s name.