March for Life founder was energized by cause

McEntee died Saturday after stroke

By Debbie Cafazzo | The News Tribune • Published January 13, 2008

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"At my parents' house, there was always a warm welcome," said daughter Kate McEntee DeWeese, a copy editor at The News Tribune. "It never ceased to amaze me how many lives she touched."

"I was really lucky to have a mom I could be proud of," said another daughter, Ann Wiegman of Tacoma. "She was an execellent model for how to be a wife, mother and friend."

Oldest son Rich McEntee also remembered his mother's protective persona: "If you were loved by Kathy McEntee, you were defended to the Nth degree. Her children were her life."

McEntee's family talked about her career as a teacher who remembered the names of her students over the years. She worked as an elementary school teacher in New Jersey and as a substitute teacher in Tacoma.

Kathy McEntee was a member of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Tacoma. She was on the national board for March for Life and was involved with the Seattle Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, Catholic Women's Club and Catholic Daughters of the Americas. She was a past trustee at Saint Martin's University in Lacey.

She is survived by her husband and her children: Rich McEntee, Ann Wiegman, Paul McEntee, Aileen Carrell, Kate McEntee DeWeese and Noreen Hobson, and their spouses.

She is also survived by 10 grandchildren, with one on the way. She was preceded in death by her parents, Ann and Paul Jones, and a granddaughter, Lucy Marie Carrell who died in 2001.

Kathy McEntee was born April 5, 1938 in Teaneck, N.J. She grew up in New Jersey and attended Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross in Washington, D.C.

She married in 1962 and moved to Washington state in 1967 when her husband went to work for Nalley's Fine Foods.

Funeral arrangements are pending at Gaffney Funeral Home in Tacoma.