Catharine Hooker Barclay ("Kitty"), 96, died peacefully on Sunday, April 19th at Evergreen Woods in Branford CT. where she had lived for the past twenty years. Kitty was predeceased by her husband, Albert Hampton Barclay ("Hamp"), her brother Thomas Hooker and her sister, Dorothy M. Hooker. Kitty was born in Boston, on May 5, 1918 to Thomas Hooker and Emily Malbone Morgan.

Kitty grew up in New Haven where she attended the The Foote School, and Mrs. Day's School (later Day Prospect Hill School and now Hopkins Grammar School). She graduated from The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. in 1936 and Vassar College in 1940, where she majored in German. Kitty traveled to Europe in the summer of 1939 with The Experiment in International Living to Austria and Germany. She was unable to leave Munich until five days after Germany invaded Poland, but fortunately was able to travel to Scandinavia and return home on the SS Drottningholm from Denmark. Following graduation, Kitty worked for two years as an assistant to the editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine.

In September 1943 Kitty married her husband, Hamp. They raised their four children in New Haven until Hamp's untimely death at age 47 in 1958. Both shared a deep love of New Haven and enjoyed helping their community through service and generosity.This is one of the most important values they passed on to their four children. Kitty was an active volunteer and contributed her time, energy, skills, and financial support on behalf of many New Haven area organizations. These included The Dixwell Neighborhood House, The Neighborhood Music School, Trinity Church on the Green, Gaylord Hospital, and The Children's Center of Hamden. She served as president of the Edgerton Garden Center, president of the Woman's Seamen's Friend Society of CT., and president of the auxiliary as well as a member of the board of trustees for Gaylord Hospital. She also served on the boards of The Children's Center of Hamden and Grove Street Cemetery as well as on The Altar Guild of Trinity Church. She was a literacy volunteer and later a member of the Employee Appreciation Committee at Evergreen Woods.

Kitty was an active member of the Fortnightly and North End Clubs, the Garden Club of New Haven, The Junior League, and The New Haven Lawn Club. She was an avid and accomplished gardener and spent many hours tending her gardens at her homes on East Rock Road, Everit Street, and Cliff Street, at her summer home in Prouts Neck, Maine, and later at Evergreen Woods.

Well into her nineties, Kitty participated in a monthly book group, played bridge at least once a week, and finished the NYT daily crosswords. In the last months of her life, she collaborated on crosswords with her children and grandchildren who found her crossword skills remarkable and theirs somewhat less so.

Kitty leaves and is lovingly remembered by her four children, Albert H. Barclay Jr. of Potomac MD., Emily M. Barclay of Watertown MA., Catharine B. Fender of Belmont MA., Thomas H. Barclay of Auburndale, MA., her eight grandchildren: Eliza D. Barclay, Hampton S. Barclay, Colin B. Hawes, Julia M. Hawes, Patrick H. Fender, Emily H. Fender, George A.N. Barclay and Catharine B. N. Barclay, her step-grandson Robert A. Fender, her sister Anne H. Boardman of Lexington, MA., her son in-law John Hawes, her two daughters in-law, Gay Barclay and Lucy Norvell, and many nieces and nephews.

The family wishes to thank the staff of the Evergreen Woods Health Center for their loving care of Kitty over the last year. In lieu of flowers, donations in Kitty's name can be made to the Albert Hampton and Catharine Hooker Barclay Fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Edgerton Park Conservancy, or Gaylord Specialty Healthcare Hospital in Wallingford CT. A service in celebration of Kitty's life will be held at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, CT. on Friday, June 12th at 11:00AM. Arrangements are with the HAWLEY LINCOLN MEMORIAL, 1315 Boston Post Road, Guilford. To sign the online guestbook please visit hawleylincolnmemorial.com.