In Memoriam

Kathryn Mary Ahearne
1937-2025

COOPERSTOWN—Kathryn “Kay” Mary Ahearne, born July 5, 1937, passed away on Friday, November 14, 2025. She lived a life of grace, creativity, good humor and profound resilience.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kathryn was the eldest of four siblings raised by the indomitable duo of Paul and Catherine Martin. She was 7 years old when the Martins moved to Greenwood Lake, New York. They settled into a summer cottage near the top of the steep, winding roads of the Lakelands neighborhood. The hillside made for exhilarating sledding, but also hard work, as there was no running water in winter, which meant hauling buckets of water to the house from the bottom of the hill.

The blizzard of ‘48 was enough. The Martins moved into an apartment over the post office while her parents built the family home in Windemere Park. In Greenwood Lake, along its steep slopes, amongst the tight-knit community, and behind the busy counter of Paul’s Lake Diner, Kathyrn came into her own. After graduating from St. John’s High School in Goshen, where she excelled in the classroom and on the basketball court, Kathryn moved back to Brooklyn to attend Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School and soon thereafter found work as an executive assistant with an engineering firm.

At age 18, while living in Brooklyn, Kathryn experienced the unfathomable loss of her fiancé, Dick Neubeck, who died suddenly of an aneurysm the day after she accepted his marriage proposal. Two summers later, Kathryn was invited to a friend’s house, where she met John Connolly, a dashing New York City policeman. At age 21, Kathryn married John, and they moved to Long Island, where they welcomed their first child, Kathleen. Less than two years later, John Connolly was tragically killed in a car accident. Widowed at age 23 while pregnant with their second child, Kathryn returned home to Greenwood Lake and welcomed her son John into the world.

At age 27, Kathryn married Dr. Allan J. Ahearne, a young veterinarian from Jersey City, New Jersey, who made his way to Greenwood Lake to court Kathryn after meeting her through a family friend and Catholic priest, Father Curtin. Kathryn and Allan moved to Long Island, where Allan had founded the Oceanside Animal Hospital, and settled in Garden City where the family lived for 33 years. It was here that Kathleen and John were joined by siblings James, Allan Jr., and Maura. The photo albums of these years capture classic hairdos and plaids of the suburban 70s and 80s, summers in Greenwood Lake, and comical outings with high-spirited family and friends.

When Kathryn’s youngest, Maura, was old enough to go off to school, she did the same, commuting to the New York School of Interior Design in Manhattan. Her children recall Mom taking over the dining room table with her homework and often working late into the night on school assignments. Upon graduation, she and a classmate, Gertrude Reed, launched an acclaimed and successful interior design business with clients throughout Long Island and Manhattan that, along with Allan’s veterinary practice, provided for her bustling family.

Over the years, clients’ and family homes and businesses were a canvas for Kathryn’s impeccable sense of form, color, and design. She had a natural skill for arrangement and sense for beauty that transformed any room. But her embrace of the beauty of life went deeper than the material, and possessing disarming poise, compassionate empathy, and a vision for a better outcome, she always sought to bring out the best in others.

In 1997, Kathryn and Allan embraced a new adventure and moved to Cooperstown, New York, where they found a welcoming community, made wonderful friends and enjoyed country life and the village along the glimmering Otsego Lake. At their home, they enjoyed regular visits from their growing family, as children were joined by spouses, and then children of their own, who played in the yard surrounded by Kathryn’s artistically composed gardens and Allan’s vibrant vegetable patch.

Sadly, in 2013, Kathryn and Allan received the devastating news that cast a lasting shadow; their son John had died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. And coming full circle, after 23 years in Cooperstown, they returned to Greenwood Lake in the spring of 2020 where they could often be found sitting and talking together on the front lawn and enjoying the view down the lake. Before winter’s arrival, they settled in nearby Warwick Grove, and it was here where Kathryn lost her beloved husband Allan after 57 years of marriage.

Kathryn was blessed to have her daughter Kathleen, son Allan Jr., and daughter-in-law Amber living nearby. She savored visits from family, and neighbors warmly greeted her on regular walks in the neighborhood where she often picked up sticks so that others might not trip. She never lost her hearty laugh, sense for design, taste for ice cream born in the Lake Diner, and her capacity to love and care for others. Kathryn lived an inspiring life of beauty, strength, grace and kindness.

Kathryn was pre-deceased by her husband, Dr. Allan J. Ahearne; her first husband, John J. Connolly; her parents, Paul and Catherine Martin; her sister, Mariah Martin; her brother-in-law, Jerry Spivack; and her son, John J. Ahearne. She is survived by her sister, Dr. Carolyn Martin Spivack; brother Paul E. Martin and wife Mi Puyang, and their daughter, Catherine Martin; her daughter Kathleen Quain; her daughter-in-law Betsy Horne Ahearne and her daughters Marion and Caroline Ahearne; her son James Martin Ahearne and wife Lucy Birkett, and their daughters Fiona and Louise Ahearne; her son Allan Joseph Ahearne Jr. and wife Amber Ahearne; her daughter Maura Kathryn Ahearne and husband John Bregar, and their sons Tobias and Jameson Bregar; and many friends. 

If of interest, tribute donations would be welcomed at https://www.alz.org.