Obituary of Margaret A. Brown

In her husband’s words: “A sweet woman whose gentleness gave her strength that always amazed me. I couldn’t help but love her immensely and yet be jealous of those qualities that flowed so effortlessly from that God given physical beauty. Missing you is easy, bearing the emptiness it brings is totally overwhelming – God grant you with the glory you deserve.”

Margaret was born in 1925 in North Dighton, Massachusetts, the youngest of 12 children, to Mary (Verissimo) Katon and Joseph Raposa Katon (Katona). Margaret was the only one born in the hospital and not at home. Four of the children died at birth or shortly thereafter; the eight living children had full lives but all predeceased Margaret. On the Katon side of the family, she had six sets of in-laws and a multitude of nieces and nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews, and so on, totaling more than 60 related offspring, and roughly 40 such relatives on her husband’s side.

Margaret grew up on a farm in North Dighton, Massachusetts, where her family grew fruit, vegetables, and raised animals. It was during the out-house era of pump-handle powered water supply in the kitchen and a wood stove for heat and cooking. She wistfully recalled how boxes of newborn chicks were kept warm near the woodstove until they were old enough to survive out in the coop. By the time she graduated from Dighton High School in 1942, all of this was a memory with indoor plumbing and oil heat then in place.

While attending high school, she worked part time in clothing and millinery stores and spoke of having to deal with high customer demand for silk stockings that could not be met during the war. Following graduation, she worked clerical and secretarial jobs at the Harodite Finishing Mill on the Taunton River in North Dighton. In addition, she volunteered as a USO worker entertaining soldiers who were being trained at nearby Fort Devens. In the late ‘40s to early ‘50s, she did office work for the Western Auto Supply Co. where she met her future husband, Paul, who was working a summer job in the warehouse while studying engineering at Brown University.

After Paul graduated, he and Margaret married at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in North Dighton, MA. They settled in Bolton, CT and raised their three children there. Margaret lived the rest of her life in Bolton, an active member of the community and the church. She also formed a number of friendships with people in town that she valued all the rest of her life. Before her children came along, she worked as an account specialist at the Hartford Credit Rating Bureau. After the birth of her first child, Kathleen, she admitted that it was one of the happiest moments of her life, amplified by the fact that she was happy to now work full-time as a parent. When her son Jeffrey was born a year later, then Pamela three years after that, her days became quite full, to say the least. As the children grew, she organized a carpool with other mothers in the neighborhood to drive children home from after school activities. During their high school years, she became active in the Share and Care group at Saint Maurice Church, visiting the home bound, and also served as a Eucharistic minister. Margaret also worked as an assistant to Bolton’s Registrar of Voters, covering the polls during elections. Of all her work out side the home, she most enjoyed her years volunteering at the Manchester Memorial Hospital intensive care center and later in the birthing center.

In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to The National Alzheimer’s Foundation. https://alzfdn.org/support-us/