Catherine E. Jackson, Oct. 31, 1937 — Jan. 1, 2023
Catherine E. Jackson died peacefully and quietly in the early hours of 2023. She was 85 years old and leaves behind three daughters, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, as well as a daughter-in-law, three sisters, and many nieces, nephews, and friends.
Catherine, known as Cass or Cassie for most of her life, was the very definition of small but mighty. She was the oldest in a family of seven kids—six girls and one boy (he got his own room)—and two loving parents, Thomas and Catherine Gilday. Cassie and her siblings grew up in Philadelphia, and she graduated from Little Flower Catholic High School in 1955 with her best friend Cassie Plover (now Laughlin), with whom she remained lifelong friends. Even then, Catherine longed to travel and have adventures.
Catherine was the first in her large Irish Catholic family to fly on an airplane (to Florida in the late 1950s, but not to Cuba as planned after her flight was cancelled because of events related to the Cuban Revolution). Her adventures took a new direction when she met Dad, fell in love, and the two created a family together. In the early 1960s, they moved from Philly to the Jersey Shore town of Toms River—and Cass had to learn how to drive.