19 (9) | Katherine Alice RooneyBorn 2 Apr 1852 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died 2 May 1939 Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, age 87 years Katherine Ann Rooney: A Grandma for All
"Grandma McKanna: now there was a woman!" Whenever he spoke of her, m y father, Judge Willis, inevitably came around to this glowing phras e of praise. Others who knew her echoed those sentiments: Katherine W illis, named for her; Mickey McKanna, son of Phillip and Kathleen Doyl e McKanna, her grandson; Frances Penglase Barnhill, "Panky," lifelon g friend of Elizabeth McKanna Willis, her daughter. What electrified t hem about this woman?
Patrick Rooney and Ellen Tracy gave life to Katherine on April 2, 1852 . Patrick had emigrated from Ireland to Quebec Province, Canada, in 1 835; Ellen had done likewise in time to marry him in 1837 in a small f arming and logging community in Upper Wakefield Township. There Patri ck farmed while Ellen gave birth to, cared for, and raised her ever-gr owing family. Katherine made child number eight; she would in two mor e years welcome her youngest sibling, Elizabeth, the ninth and last ch ild. The family being Catholic, Katherine was baptized at St. Camillu s Catholic Church in Farellton– a rural town now called La Peche and e xisting to this day alongside the Gatineau River. As always, the goth ic steeple dominates the surrounding landscape.
In 1862 the United States Congress passed the Homestead Act. It offere d 160 acres of unused public lands in the Northwest Territories to any one who wished to settle on, and improve their homestead. Much of th e Rooney clan– Patrick and Ellen, and his married brothers and sisters– immigrated to Minnesota to claim its deliciously rich farming soil. Th ey settled in Stearns County in a place they named "Rooney's Settlemen t," eventually renamed Padua in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, its pat ron saint and title of its Catholic parish.
Katherine, fifteen at the time of the move, finished her schooling i n her new home. When she evidenced a mature twenty years, the communi ty leaders judged her sufficiently educated to become the first employ ed school teacher of Raymond Township. A small, wooden-shingled, one-r oom schoolhouse where she taught, though no longer in use, still exist s.
I treasure a picture of her from that period of her life:
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