Obituary of Kathleen S Frederick

Kathleen (“Kay”) Shanahan Frederick (1917-2019) died peacefully on 23 January. Daughter of Dennis Francis Shanahan and Sarah Daley Shanahan she spent her childhood in Waterbury and later Meriden, Connecticut. A 1934 graduate of Meriden High School, she married Edward Carroll Frederick, Sr (“Ed”) in 1941 just before the Pearl Harbor attacks and US entry into World War II. During the War she served at home while her husband served in the Navy as Chief Pharmacists Mate on submarine tenders and later as a Navy Corpsman with the Marine Corps. Despite his long and frequent absences in the war years, their first child Kathleen was born in 1943. During those years Kay lived in Indian Head, Maryland and Oakland, California at various times. Shortly after the war she and Ed established the E.C. Frederick Funeral Home in Meriden, which they successfully ran for more than 20 years. Her three other children: Edward C ,Jr; Alison; and Elizabeth were all born in Meriden. She was blessed with three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Kay was widowed in 2000 and predeceased by her firstborn, Kathleen, in 2014 and her bother William Regis Shanahan and sister Mary Shanahan Slavin. In 1968 the family moved from their long-term home on East Main Street in Meriden, Connecticut, to Reno, Nevada. They also lived in Redondo Beach, California and Phoenix, Arizona, before settling in Orange County in Southern California. Kay worked in insurance in Hartford, Connecticut in the years before her marriage, and resumed that career in her middle years in California. She was also one of few women licensed as a funeral director in Connecticut in the 1960’s. A frequent volunteer for the Visiting Nurses Association in Connecticut, she was president of the Junior Woman’s Club in Meriden. Kay was an avid reader and student of the world nurturing a strong sense of and curiosity about the world until her final months. She was always intellectually curious, and she is a role model for the mind-enhancing benefits of completing the New York Times (and later LA Times) crossword puzzles regularly. As further testament to her innate curiosity and intellect, she embraced computers and the internet early and enthusiastically. She and Ed travelled extensively, toured most of the major sites in Europe, and they ventured as far as Hong Kong and Thailand in their later years. Kay leaves a legacy of feminine dignity and independence. She was strongly influenced by her enduring Roman Catholic faith. A private mass and burial are planned but anyone wishing to honor Kay’s memory can make a contribution to VNA Health Care. (http://vnahomehealthandhospice.com).