Born in New York on a snowy February morning, Catherine Mary Mulkeen, was the loving daughter of Thomas and Catherine Mulkeen both Irish immigrants (he a restauranteur, she a nurse) who had settled in the Bronx. The second of seven children, Cay (as she later called herself) excelled at school, earning a full scholarship to Cathedral High School in Manhattan (the all-girls high school affiliated with St. Patrick’s Cathedral). With an interest in fashion design, Cay enrolled in the Traphagen School of Fashion, a celebrated American fashion design school and designed clothes for both children and adults. Articles from her children’s clothing line, Wee Togs, can still be found online. But it was a fateful Sunday in 1945 at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church where she met her future husband, John V. McCarthy, that changed her life forever.

Cay and John were married in 1949 and spent the next 52 years together. In 1954, with three small children in tow, the family boarded a train and moved from Manhattan to the northwest side of the city of Detroit, which became their adopted home for the next 50 years. As John V. McCarthy and Associates (a national Catholic fundraising firm) grew, so did the family. Cay ultimately gave birth to an even dozen (8 girls and 4 boys) and raised the McCarthy “gang” with patience, kindness and faith in Gesu Parish. Cay devoted her free time to the Mount Carmel Hospital Guild (having served as President), the Gesu Women’s Guild (also served as President), was active in the University District Homeowners Association, and was a 50-year member of the Detroit Yacht Club. She also continued to pursue her passion for art and design and attended the Detroit Center for Creative Studies.

For many years, John and Cay would vacation in Pompano Beach, Florida. She loved to travel (having visited Ireland several times), was the lone golfer in a family of tennis players and was a prodigious writer of op-ed articles to local newspapers, which invariably opened with the line, “As the mother of 12…” If you had a question about family history (from Counties Mayo and Westmeath in Ireland to New York City), Cay was the de facto historian for all who shared her DNA.

A high point of her life was meeting Pope John Paul II during the appointment of Edmund C. Szoka as Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Detroit, at the Vatican.

Before settling in Colorado, Cay also lived in East Lansing, Michigan, and later with family in Naples, Florida. In recent years she was a parishioner at St. Thomas More in Centennial, Colorado.

Cay was predeceased by her husband John in 2002 and their son, Daniel in 1982. She is survived by her children Mary, Thomas (Frances), Catherine, Theresa, Susan (David) Wiggin, John (Tom Smith), Margaret (Robert) Froehlke, Anne, Patrick (Christine), Jane (William) Roberts, Carol (Jason) Shilson. Cay’s 23 grandchildren include John (Christa) Quarles, Ryan (Kaly) Quarles, James (Shelly) Quarles, Carolyn McCarthy, Thomas McCarthy, Meghan (Scott Shade) McCarthy, Michael (Iris) Palmer, James DiStanislao, Maisie (Tyler) Bjerke, Margaret (John) Gabour, Catherine Wiggin, Elizabeth (Edward) Van Wesep, Alex Froehlke (Angela Cox – fiancé), Brennan Froehlke (Godson), Sarah Catherine Froehlke, Sean McCarthy, Matthew McCarthy, Molly McCarthy, John Ryan McCarthy, Emily Roberts, Claire Roberts, Andrew Roberts and Connor Shilson and her 10 great grandchildren include Bridger Quarles, Paolo Quarles, Rhys Quarles, Iain Quarles, Maeve Catherine Quarles, Ashton McCarthy, Isabella McCarthy, Cassandra Palmer, Annabelle Catherine Palmer, Benjamin Gabour, with another one on the way. She is also survived by her sister, Josephine Dolan of Livingston, New Jersey, and her brother, Ed Mulkeen (Godson), of Smithtown, New York as well as her first cousin, Gladys Connolly., of East Meadow, New York and other Godsons include, Stephen Schram and Kelly Fisher.

In her final days, Cay shared the following advice: “Love God, be kind and no fighting.” If there is a dessert section of heaven, you will find her there.