Catherine Sleeth, 63, a retired social worker, died December 26 at her home in Wrentham. She died unexpectedly, though she had long been ill.
Cathy was a gentle person with strong convictions. She had a gift for friendship with people of all ages. Her friends and clients knew her for her concern for people, animals, and nature.
She was born February 27, 1946 in Denver, Colorado, to Albert and Frances O’Gara Sleeth. She grew up in Longmont, Colorado, the youngest of three children. After graduating in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, she became a Head Start teacher in Mississippi during the Civil Rights era, an experience that deeply affected her.
She then qualified to teach the educable mentally retarded, and in 1973 went to teach retarded youngsters in Bonavista, Newfoundland. But the isolation and extreme weather of that environment led her to relocate to Massachusetts. She earned a Master’s in Social Work degree from Boston University in 1978, and for many years thereafter was a clinical social worker for the state Department of Mental Retardation. She retired eight years ago as service coordinator for the Milford office of the DMR.
During the 1980s, Cathy helped found the Milford area Coalition for the Homeless, and volunteered there for some years. She recently volunteered at the Literacy Center in Attleboro as a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Cathy loved her small house in Wrentham, where she gardened, explored the lake and the woods, and enjoyed a series of animal companions, memorably her dogs Posey, Blondie, and Bodhi, and her contrary cat Leon. Books and the arts meant much to her.
Cathy found spiritual support within the Buddhist tradition as taught at the Insight Meditation Center in Barre and in the Wrentham-area Buddhist community. She shared the social idealism of the Quakers, and attended the Smithfield Friends Meeting in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Always seeking, she recently attended the Unitarian Universalist Society in Franklin.
But Cathy suffered from depression over many years, and though she fought it valiantly, it caused her death. Many people mourn her loss.
Cathy is survived by her sister and brother-in-law Susan Sleeth Mosedale and Fred Mosedale of Beaverton, Oregon, and nephew Dan Mosedale of San Francisco; brother and sister-in-law James and Gretchen Sleeth of San Diego, nephew Kyle Sleeth and niece Darrah Sleeth of San Diego; her close friend Betty Blais of Norfolk; two special young people in her life, Armando and Carolyn Palmieri; her many friends; and her relatives in the Sleeth, O’Gara, and Kroeger families.
Her family is grateful to the Wrentham Angels for their recent support of her.
Please do a kind deed in Cathy’s memory. If desired, memorial donations may be made to the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless (15 Bubier Street, Lynn, MA 01901) or the Massachusetts Humane Society (P.O. Box 890127, East Weymouth MA 02189).
A memorial gathering for Cathy will be held Saturday, Jan. 23, at 10 a.m. at the First Universalist Society in Franklin, 262 Chestnut St.