Obit "TAMAR HENNESSY, 82 died March 25, 2008" Staten Island Advance
Frank Cordaro
Staten Island Advance
TAMAR HENNESSY, 82 died March 25, 2008
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STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- Former Staten Islander Tamar Teresa Batterham
Hennessy, of Springfield, Vt., the daughter of Dorothy Day, co-founder
of the Catholic Worker movement, died Tuesday in Lebanon, N.H. She was
82.
Born in Manhattan in 1926, she was baptized at Our Lady Help of
Christians R.C. Church in Tottenville that same year.
Ms. Hennessy graduated from the Academy of St. Dorothy in Grasmere,
and studied at the Farmingdale Agricultural School on Long Island, as
well as the workshop of artist Ade Bethune in Newport, R.I.
She married William David Hennessy, a farmer and bookseller, in
Easton, Pa., in 1944. The couple settled in West Virginia, and
eventually returned to Staten Island, where they lived near the
Catholic Worker Farm on Bloomingdale Road in Rossville.
In 1957, the family moved to Perkinsville, Vt., where Ms. Hennessy
studied to become a practical nurse at the Thompson School of Nursing
in Brattleboro.
As a child, she accompanied her writer mother to Hollywood and then to
Mexico, as well as around the Island when Ms. Day did assignments for
a local gardening column.
In the mid-1970s, Ms. Hennessy spent weeks visiting Ms. Day at the
Catholic Worker bungalows at the former Spanish Camp, overlooking
Raritan Bay.
An accomplished spinner and weaver, Ms. Hennessy was also a skilled
organic gardener and an avid reader.
Her great delights were her children and grandchildren, welcoming
visitors, caring for animals, discussing politics and listening to
jazz and classical music.
Her husband, William David, died in 2005.
Surviving are her two sons, Eric and Hilaire Hennessy; her five
daughters, Rebecca Houghton and Mary, Margaret, Martha and Catherine
Hennessy; 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Ms. Hennessy's daughter, Susanna McMurry, died in 1986, and her son,
Nicholas Hennessy, died in 1987. Her grandson, Justin Houghton, died
in 1979, and her grandson, Joshua Hennessy, died in 2004.
The funeral will be Saturday from the Davis Memorial Chapel, with a
mass at 11 a.m. in St. Mary's R.C. Church, both Springfield. Burial
will be private.