Catherine Q. Perry, age 48, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, returned to God peacefully on Saturday, 13 April 2024 after a courageous five-year battle with breast cancer. She was surrounded at bedside by her immediate and extended family in Alamo, California. She was the loving spouse of Alan R. Perry who survives her; they shared twenty years of marriage together.
Catherine was born in Mountain View, California on 15 May 1975, the youngest of eight children born to Thomas P. (1938 – 2018) and Sheila M. (O’Keefe) Quinn (b. 1939). Before graduating with top honors in 1993 from St. Francis High School in Mountain View, she was educated at St. Nicholas Catholic School in Los Altos. She ran cross-country and track and was a cheerleader for the Lancers. Catherine then attended the University of Notre Dame, graduating cum laude in 1997 with an English degree. She met Alan at Middlebury College in 1998 when she began a Masters of Italian Language and Literature. The two were married in 2003 at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Danville, California and built a life in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where she was on the staff of Special Collections for seventeen years at Gettysburg College. They have three surviving daughters, Olivia (age 15), Anna (age 13), and Nora (age 9). Catherine loved archival work and grew fascinated with the US Civil War, especially its photographic record captured in tin and Daguerreotypes. She was an avid runner, dancer, and fiction reader who adored Jane Austen. Above all, she loved her dear children and was so thrilled and deeply grateful to be their mother. The family especially looked forward to their annual summer sojourns in California and periodic trips to Tuscany, Italy, where Catherine had studied and lived in the late 1990s. Over the years they were also able to travel back to Notre Dame, pray at the Grotto, visit Catherine’s dorm, Howard Hall, and cheer on their beloved Irish. In Gettysburg, they were long-time parishioners at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.
Beyond her children and husband, Catherine is survived by her mother and seven siblings: Thomas P. Quinn, Jr., John A. Quinn, Megan Q. Riccitiello, Brian J. Quinn, Eileen Q. Tarantino, Daniel B. Quinn, and Ann Q. Halkett. Also surviving her are five sisters-in-law, four brothers-in-law, a mother-in-law, and twenty-four nephews and nieces. Besides her father, she was preceded in death by her dear nephew David Riccitiello.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend Catherine’s Rosary and Mass of Christian Burial on Friday, April 26, at 12:30pm at St. Isidore Catholic Church, 440 La Gonda Way, Danville, California with the Rev. Matthew Murray as celebrant. Following the Mass, she will be laid to rest at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Lafayette, California at 2:30pm. A celebration of life ceremony will take place immediately following comital in Lafayette and later at Gettysburg College.
The Perry and Quinn families would like to thank the nurses and staff of American Hospice and Home Health Services in Pleasanton, California for the loving and compassionate care they consistently showed to Catherine.
In lieu of flowers, contributions and Masses in Catherine’s memory may be made to St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Gettysburg, PA 17325.
