Catherine Letourneau

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of the matriarch of the LeTourneau-Caravello family, Catherine Mary LeTourneau at age 105. She was born during one pandemic and she survived another over 100 years later.

Known as “Kay” to family and “Katie” to her friends, she was mostly a life-long resident of Madison. Kay was born on Saturday, June 23rd, 1917 to Phillip and Josephine Caravello of Palermo, Sicily at the family apartment flat at 744 Gwinnette Court in Madison, right across the street from Brittingham Park. She and her family would move to 715 Mound St. six years later, part of the “Greenbush” neighborhood of Madison, where she would reside for most of the next 38 years. The neighborhood, the park, the people who made up the community in the “Triangle” all had a hand in developing her outgoing personality.

Kay attended Longfellow school where she was given the name “Katie” by her 5th grade teacher, Ms. Waugh. Katie went on to graduate from Madison Central High School and made friends with everyone, especially those in the “Bush” which was a “melting pot” of Southern Italians and Sicilians, Jews from Eastern Europe and African-Americans from the American south.

Kay worked her whole life as a food server. Kay married Joseph LeTourneau whom she earlier met in 1942 while working as a server at the Riverside Walgreens in Milwaukee. Returning to Madison soon after, Kay worked serving folks at the Baron’s Department store restaurant on the Capitol Square, then moved over to Manchester’s Department store in their restaurant before finally retiring in the mid-1980s working as a food server for patients at University Hospital in Madison. When St. Joseph’s church was lost to “Urban Renewal” in the early 1960’s, Kay joined nearby St. James Church, working in its kitchen to serve visitors for weddings, funerals or other church events, or singing in the choir during Mass.

A big highlight of her life was winning a trip to Europe in 1970 through a TV contest on Madison’s Channel 27 which allowed her to establish ties to her Sicilian relatives in Palermo. She later returned to Palermo two more times, the last when she was in her late 80’s.  God didn’t make many like “Katie”.

Kay is preceded in death by her parents, Phillip and Josephine (Gambino) Caravello, her husband, Joseph, her son Jack and Kay’s siblings; Antonia (Lee) Boyce, Angelina, Santo, Salvatore(Sam), Jimmy, Joe, Phillip and George. She is survived by her son James (Rose) LeTourneau of Madison and granddaughter Christina LeTourneau of La Ciotat, France. She is also survived by the numerous nieces and nephews.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Italian-American Women’s Club of Madison or St. James Church of the Good Shepard, Madison.

Visitation will be held on Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 from 9:30a to 10:30am at St. James Church, 1128 St. James Court, Madison. A church memorial mass will be held at 10:30am followed immediately by internment at Resurrection Cemetery in Madison.  A luncheon will be served back at St. James immediately after internment. All are invited.

Cress Funeral & Cremation Service

3610 Speedway Road Madison

(608) 238-3434