KATHRYN GAFFNEY “KITTY” NEUHAUS
1937-2017
Kathryn Gaffney “Kitty” Neuhaus, of Houston, Texas, passed away peacefully at home on Friday, the 24th of March 2017, after bravely navigating a year-long illness.
Kitty was born on the 7th of November 1937, to Maurice and Kathryn Gaffney in Cedarhurst, New York. She attended Garrison Forest School near Baltimore, Maryland, and the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City. In 1958, after a short career in advertising with Doremus, fate intervened. During a visit to Houston with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Reed, she met and fell in love with Harry Neuhaus. They married just months later and thereafter Kitty made Texas her home. She kept a special place in her heart for her hometown, sharing stories of friends and antics at the Lawrence Beach Club, and missing her siblings and friends. Never losing her love for the sea, Kitty enjoyed many years of weekends in Galveston with family and friends always considering it to be her vacation in reach. She loved being active, playing tennis and golf, taking long walks, and spending time in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the mountains of North Carolina or at the beach. She was a joyful gardener, an avid reader, cross word puzzler and collector of funny cartoons. Kitty was interested in and cared about people from all walks of life and loved her friends and family.
Kitty Neuhaus was a member of the Bayou Club of Houston, The Assembly, Houston Garden Club, Town and Country Garden Club, and Sam’s Club.
She was predeceased by her husband, James Harrison Neuhaus; her brother, Maurice Gaffney; and her sisters, Olive Twyman and Maura Lynch. She is survived by her daughters, Sarah Neuhaus Hastings and husband John, Mary Neuhaus Fleming and husband Nigel; her grandsons, Harrison Hastings, Andrew Hastings, Jago Fleming and Hugo Fleming; sister-in-law, Kaye Gaffney; brother-in-law, Skip Lynch; and many nieces and nephews.
Kitty felt truly blessed to be in the outstanding care of Dr. Marc Boom and his assistant, Jill Kubesch and to consider them friends. She was grateful for her dear caregivers Lucy Guillory and Joann Norman who treated her with love and brought her laughter. Her family wishes to express deep gratitude to these amazing people as well as to Dr. Eric Bernicker and Dr. Brian Butler.
Following a private interment, a memorial service and celebration of her life is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 22nd of April, at the Church of St. John the Divine, 2450 River Oaks Boulevard in Houston, where the Rev. Dr. Clay Lein will officiate.
Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent Sumners Hall.
In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in memory of Kitty Neuhaus be directed to Workshop Houston, 3615 Sauer St., Houston, TX, 77004; or to the Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation, P.O. Box 4384, Houston, TX 77210.