Catherine "Kit" Zack

ZACK- Catherine "Kit" Zack, died January 12th at 93 after a long illness; she was pre-deceased by her husband of 55 years, Eddie Zack, and all of her siblings. Kit and Ed arrived in Southern California in 1953 from Winnipeg, Canada. She chose Pasadena, with its trees and old houses - rejecting the new tracts favored by Ed because they promised maintenance-free weekends. As soon as daughters Eileen and Michele began attending Longfellow School, Kit threw herself into the community. She organized Brownie and Girl Scout Troops, school book fairs, paper drives, carnivals, and talent shows. She served several terms as PTA President and organized a PUSD district-wide volunteer force to help in classrooms. She was active in Democratic politics, working the phones and walking the long block of the family's Holliston Street home from Washington to Mountain to get out the vote - dragging along the girls to teach them about politics. Kit Crowley was born in 1918 in Barry, Glamorganshire, on the coast of South Wales. Her Irish Catholic family included five girls and two boys, mother Mary Ann and father John, known for his acerbic letters to the editor speaking for rights of The Workingman. Kit was a dreamy girl with her head in a book. She loved family "singsongs" and hikes across the fields down to the rocky local beach. After hearing Churchill's "we shall never surrender" speech, she joined the Royal Air Force. Corporal Crowley endured the Battle of Britain before being stationed in the north where she met Royal Canadian Air Force flight mechanic and scrounger extraordinaire Eddie Zack. They married after D-Day in June, 1944, and traveled by troop ship to Canada. The voyage was so rough that only Kit (hungry after years of rationing, she claimed) and a few crew appeared at mealtimes. In Winnipeg, Canada, Kit introduced Christmas and mince tarts to Eddie's extended Jewish family, helped raise chickens, and gave birth to two girls. The family migrated to Southern California, where Eddie's cousins the Pillers were engaged in the schmatta trade, and where they soon met friends through The Daughters of the British Empire, PTA, and politics. Eddie settled in at Luminart (eventually bought by AdArt), quickly rising to management. He always kept up union membership, commenting "I know what side my bread's buttered on." As the children grew, Kit's love of books and working with children helped advance her from volunteer into a "real job" at Jefferson Elementary Reading Lab. This was in the early 1970s, when the influx of Spanish-speaking students began overwhelming classroom teachers. Kit's crisp, clear diction led to her recording of many books, which English learners listened to on headphones as they read along. She loved this work and discovered her avocation, supported by Jefferson teachers who became good friends. In retirement Kit and Eddie visited friends and family, traversing North America, Europe, and Australia in a succession of campers for months at a time. They toured China, Russia, and India. In the 1990s, Thailand became their travel base; they stayed with daughter Michele's family while exploring Southeast Asia. Besides travel, Kit's greatest joy was to take charge of only-granddaughter Natalie in annual visits to California -she and Ed took her camping and to Monterrey Aquarium many times in support of her plan to become a "fish racer" when she grew up. Kit, a citizen of three countries in her lifetime, will be missed. She lives on in the activism she inspired in her children.