Gertrude M. Widmayer

ACTON — Gertrude Marie (Catanese) Widmayer, of Acton and Falmouth, died unexpectedly on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. She was 78 years old and succumbed to a heart attack at Emerson Hospital in Concord.

She was the eldest child of Accursio Gustave Catanese of Sciacca, Sicily, Italy, and Beatrice Marie (Searvant) of Montclair, N.J. Her own family called her "Ida," while her friends called her "Trudy." Her husband's family always called her "Gertrude."

Born in Williamsburg, N.Y., on July 14, 1930, she attended public schools in New York City. She graduated from high school in 1947 and went on to complete 47 credits toward a Bachelor of Science in education, attending classes four nights each week at Hunter College.

On her 17th birthday, Trudy became a clerk for the Metropolitan Insurance Co. in Manhattan at 23rd and Madison. She also worked at Macy's Department Store on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. Friday and Saturday nights were reserved for dates with her future husband, Francis Joseph Widmayer Jr., the son of Francis Joseph Widmayer Sr. and Julia Helen (Emig) of Maspeth, N.Y. In 1952, she worked as a clerk typist for Ebasco International, proofing reports from engineers in the foreign field.

Trudy was always a great proofreader and loved to read published biographies, often finding errors of syntax, grammar, or typography. The happiest time in her life, she recounted, was during the 1950s. "Everybody seemed hopeful," she would later recall. Perhaps this was because the early 1940s were marred by the World War II and the deaths of her favorite uncle Chich Catanese and her adored paternal grandmother, Gaetana (Sclafani). On Sept. 10, 1949, she and Francis Widmayer married, each at the age of 19, and started a family. The couple's first four children, Francis, Julianne, Kathryn and Gus were born to them in New York in the 1950s. The couple moved to Acton in 1964 and their youngest son, Michael, was born in Concord in 1968.

Trudy spent her adult life supporting her husband and children with a deep love for all that they accomplished. Family was everything for her. Over the course of her life, she focused squarely on the growth and development first of her children and then of her 10 grandchildren. She encouraged all five children to maintain a close lifetime working relationship with her husband's business Orion Industries located at Orion Park in Ayer. Over the years, she was adamant about having all in the family balance work with recreation by keeping the couple's four homes in play for all to share together at times of holiday and vacation. The Widmayers moved to Acton from Connecticut in 1965 and spent summers in Falmouth since 1967.

She leaves a sister, Mary Elizabeth with her husband, Rick T. Lancia, of Manhasset, N.Y.; and two brothers, Ted Gustave Catanese of Londonderry, N.H., and Frank Joseph Catanese with his wife, Margie (Lane), of Bethpage, Long Island, N.Y. Trudy's loving children are son, Francis Joseph Widmayer III, Police Chief of Acton; daughter, Julianne Beatrice with her husband, Stuart Dickson Husmer, of Acton, along with their children, Jennifer Marie, Daniel Stuart, and Steven Michael; daughter, Kathryn Antoinette with her husband, Dr. Richard R. Waller Jr., of Berlin, and their four girls, Kimberly Anne, Allison Marie, Amy Lynne, and Kaitlyn Elizabeth; son, Gus Gerard Widmayer of Boston with his daughter, Sophia Louise; son, Michael Jude Widmayer and his wife, Jacqueline (Beausoleil), of Tyngsborough, with their two girls, Natasha Paige and Annika Marie. Trudy's love of family established in each of her children and grandchildren the comfort of being centered and secure in her memory even though for this short moment in time they have lost the family's heart.

Services were held at the Acton Funeral Home on Sept. 2, with her funeral Mass on Sept. 3, at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Acton. Burial was at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Acton.