Catherine Reynolds

Catherine Reynolds

Loving Wife, Mother, Grandmother

Catherine E. Reynolds, a longtime resident of Edison, N.J., passed away at age 90 on August 15, 2019 surrounded by her children. She was reunited in heaven with her beloved husband William J. Reynolds, who passed away in 2018.

Catherine was born to Paul and Elizabeth Lebzelter in the ethnic German village of Herend, Hungary. The three of them immigrated to the United States in 1932, settling in Newark, N.J. where Catherine attended Avon Avenue School through third grade and St. Peter’s School through eighth grade. The Great Depression made the early years in the US especially difficult, but through sheer hard work the family bought a house in Irvington, N.J. in 1942. Several years later they built a brick house with their own hands in the same town. Catherine graduated from Irvington High School in

1946.

She was hired by Interstate Manufacturing Company, a Newark-based maker of wiring harnesses for household appliances. She performed many office duties, and when the company folded in 1956 she was recruited as a junior accountant by H.B. Richardson and Co, certified public accountants, in Passaic, N.J.

Catherine in 1954 began taking night classes at Seton Hall University College in downtown Newark. She earned an associate degree with a major in accounting and continued her studies until marriage.

Catherine met her husband Bill, an Irvington native who spent his career as a senior officer in savings banks, in 1958. They wed two years later and lived in South Plainfield, N.J. before residing for 45 years in Edison, N.J., where they attended St. Helena’s Roman Catholic Church.

A remarkably devoted and generous woman, Catherine was a homemaker before returning to work in the office of Fibrenetics Inc, a plastic fabrication company in Woodbridge, N.J.

Catherine and Bill are survived by their five children, Ellen, Katherine, William, Patricia and Thomas. Survivors also include: grandchildren Joan, Sarah and Meredith Abbott, Larisa Reynolds, William and Hannah Reynolds, and Ryan and Liam Boutahar; son-in-law Kenneth Abbott; daughter-in-law Leslie Reynolds; and son-in-law Ali Boutahar. Catherine also is survived by her brother, Joseph Lebzelter, of Portland, Oregon. Her sister, Elizabeth Lebzelter, died in 1990.

Visitation is from 2 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 18 at Wm. A. Bradley & Son Funeral Home, 345 Main St., Chatham, N.J. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 19 at Our Lady of Peace Church, 111 South St., New Providence, N.J. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Religious Teachers Filippini Mission Fund, 455 Western Ave., Morristown, N.J. 07960

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