Katherine Dunford

Katherine Jahn Dunford
Katherine Jahn Dunford, 90, of Brevard, died Thursday, February 17, 2011 at The Oaks of Brevard.
Born in Passaic, New Jersey, she was the daughter of the late Dr. Albert George Jahn, Jr. and Gertrude Carman Jahn. In addition to her parents, a brother, Gregory Jahn, preceded her in death while serving as a U.S. Army medic, killed in action in Sicily in 1943.
Katherine attended Wellesley College and then married Thomas Joseph Dunford of Seattle, Washington. Their first son, David Joseph Dunford, was born in 1943 while his father, Joe, was serving on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the South Atlantic and later the South Pacific. After the war, the family settled in northern New Jersey, where their second son, Christopher James Dunford was born in 1948. Shortly after, the family moved to Connecticut, where the couple raised their sons until they divorced in 1966. Katherine continued to live in Litchfield County, Connecticut until 1987, when she moved to a home at Sherwood Forest in Cedar Mountain. She lived there until 1999, when she moved to Brevard.
During and after World War II, Katherine wrote reviews of classical concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City for Violins and Violinists. In 1950, Katherine and Joe joined the First Church of Christ Congregational in Norwalk, Connecticut, for which she edited publications celebrating the 300th anniversary of this early Pilgrim church. Inspired by the church, Katherine wrote a book, The Journal of an Ordinary Pilgrim, published by Westminster Press in 1954. In the 1960s, she was an editor for The New Milford Times and wrote a weekly column about the natural world of rural Connecticut. In the 1970s, Katherine was a feature editor and photographer for The Litchfield Enquirer. In Sherwood Forest, Katherine entertained herself by learning about the local wildlife, recording birdsongs in spring and feeding the birds, squirrels and various furry visitors in the night. She was a proud participant for several years in Project Feeder Watch of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dogs and cats were also a big part of her life.
Katherine is survived by her first son, Dave, and his wife, Sandy, of Tucson, Arizona and their son, Greg Dunford, and Greg's daughter, Samanta, both of Los Angeles, and their daughter, Tina Burbank, and her husband, Brad, also of Los Angeles. She is also survived by her second son, Chris, and his wife, Chris Dodson, of Davis, California, and their son, Jeremy, who is a sophomore at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
The family would like to extend special thanks to Katherine's caregivers and friends of many years, Flo McCrary and Judith Wolf. A private memorial will be held at a later date, after which her ashes will be spread by her sons in the ocean waters around Monhegan Island, Maine, perhaps Katherine's favorite place on earth.

To sign Mrs. Dunford's guestbook online, please go to "Obituaries" at www.moore-fh.com .
Moore Funeral Home is serving the family.