Kathryn "Katie" Dempsey died peacefully at her home in Orange, CA in the company of her son, James, and daughter-in-law, Susan, on Thursday, June 8, 2017. A longtime resident of Dunkirk, she was born there in 1927 and graduated from Dunkirk High School in 1944.
Katie worked at various jobs and locations: she was employed as a waitress for Cease's restaurant, a bookkeeper for several years at ALCO and later at Marine Midland Bank, an office worker at Kraft Foods, a secretary/receptionist at Holy Cross Seminary and a work supervisor at the Resource Center Sheltered Workshop. Katie also volunteered as secretary to the local NAACP in the 1970s. She was a longtime parishioner of St. Mary's Catholic Church and later at Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
She and her late husband, Hank Dempsey, moved to Apple Valley, CA in 1987. Katie spent three years in Omaha, NE, where her son, Jerry Dempsey, was stationed in the U.S. Air Force. After his transfer out of the country, Katie returned to California, where she worked as bookkeeper for a temporary employment agency and as a medical records supervisor in a local hospital. She retired in 2012.
In her immediate family, she is survived by her sons, James of Orange, CA and Gerald of Colorado Springs, CO; her granddaughter, Brittney (Dempsey) Craigo and grandson, Jonathan, both of Aurora, CO.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated in Apple Valley, CA on Thursday, June 22 at Our Lady of the Desert Catholic Church. Another memorial service and interment at Holy Trinity Catholic Church & Cemetery in Dunkirk will be held at a later date to be determined.
By the Observer
