Crown Point woman had many talents

When it came to cooking, sewing and photography, Catherine McLaren was a picture perfect wife, mother and grandmother.

"For many years she made many of her own clothes," said her son, Frank McLaren.

Her homemade wardrobe consisted of dresses, skirts, blouses and suits, her son said.

Catherine Mae McLaren, 90, of Crown Point, died Oct. 31.

"One summer, I spent a week at her house," granddaughter Heather McLaren said. "She taught me how to use her sewing machine, helped me choose a pattern and fabric, and together we made me a sundress."

McLaren was also handy with a camera.

"She'd always have those little disposable cameras ... with her everywhere she went," granddaughter Katie McLaren said.

When birthdays came up, her grandmother made photo albums or craft items with the pictures.

"They're really nice because now we can look back at them and remember all of the time we spent with her," said her grandson, Patrick McLaren.

After the death of her husband, Hugh Robert McLaren, Catherine became parish secretary for Holy Angels Cathedral Parish and later at St. Mary Catholic Church, Frank McLaren said.

Before the war, she traveled to New York with a friend, said her son, Mark McLaren. He took her to see that friend 60 years later.

"They could still remember many of the details as if it just took place the week before," he said.

Another son, Hugh, said his parents worked to put their four sons through Catholic high school and his mother helped with their college expenses.

Ryan McLaren said he grandmother liked to tease him because he hated tomatoes. When he would visit, she often told him she was cooking a "tomato surprise."

But when dinnertime arrived, his grandmother would announce, "The surprise is, there's no tomatoes!"