Kathleen Hanna lived for others and I loved her for it. Kathleen was imbued with a passion for others and assumed the responsibility for being a well spring of knowledge and a font of information, so she would be ever ready to offer help and guidance to whomsoever she would encounter to include her; • Family members • Friends • New acquaintances • Chance meetings, extending even to strangers, such as the taxi driver with whom Kathleen knew she would experience but a once in a lifetime encounter, as they would with her. Never the less, Kathleen took it upon herself to make a special connection with an unrelenting persistence to ensure the brief encounter would be a poignant one. Her character was formed in part by her mother and father’s understanding of the importance of education, who sent Kathleen for middle school to The Ursuline School, a private all female Roman Catholic middle and high school in New Rochelle, New York, Her high school Education in Newberg, New York on the Hudson, at Boarding School, furthered her character development, which at the university level was enhanced by her Education at Merrimack College in Andover, New Hampshire, an Independent college operating in the Catholic Augustinian tradition, following a practice to develop leaders with a social conscience. I think they accomplished their goal with Kathleen. All inculcated a recurring value – that of service, such that upon graduating from college Kathleen trained to serve in the Peace Corp, a humanitarian initiative of President John F. Kennedy to build and army of civilians to help ward off the dangers of underdeveloped nations struggling for economic and social progress. Kennedy stated, “our own freedom and the future of freedom around the world, depend, in a very real sense, on our ability to build growing and independent nations where men and women can live in dignity, liberated from the bonds of hunger, ignorance and poverty.” During her Peace Corps training, Kathleen met Sargent Shriver, the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps. Kathleen served her country for two years in Niger, a landlocked Northern Africa state populated with Tuaregs, a fiercely independent tribe of warriors, where Kathleen perfected a dialect of French. Curiously, a native once asked Kathleen, did she fear the imminent arrival of Peace Corp members from another country, Belgium, to which Kathleen replied “why?”. The native replied, “because they will steal your satisfaction,” fully grasping the eleemosynary mission of Kathleen and the US Peace Corp. Following her Peace Corp service, Kathleen spent the next two years in Paris, France working at the American School, tempering her French accent to match a Parisian dialect. (Street Vendor story). Upon returning to the United States, Kathleen pursued a Master’s Degree in History at NYU, and upon graduation sought conventional employment, an endeavor which was short lived. After several years, Kathleen decided to ply her trade by offering astrological guidance to an ever-growing circle of friends who sought information on this specialty, a trend that coincided with the upheaval taking place in the United States at that time, when so many of the country’s cherished traditions were questioned following the war in Vietnam. Kathleen, diversely and abundantly well read, in combination with her gift for prescience proved most valuable as she was so well informed she was a truly a genius at discerning early trends in world affairs, politics, fashion, society and even the economy. Kathleen became a true denizen of Greenwich Village New York, having stated, that every day, walking out the door started an entertaining adventure to enjoy great camaraderie with all of the other denizens of the Village. Even with all of her lifestyle changes, Kathleen kept up her ongoing commitment to service, and her social conscience surfaced repeatedly by way of her membership and contributions of her time to the Soroptimists, to a local soup kitchen, and at nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital, since closed, nurturing infants, born, infected with the Aids virus. Kathleen was truly in her element as a recontour, deriving great satisfaction from regaling a group with a provocative tale, so well told, she held all spell bound until the very end. Then the group could erupt with unusual vigor, to engage Kathleen further, on the same or a related topic. Kathleen could “carry a room with the best” as a catalyst of energy spawning rich conversation, long after she left the room. On a lighter note, no one enjoyed a complicated joke as much as Kathleen, who truly reveled in a bout of hearty laughter! Woe be unto even just one guest at a family gathering, who had never before heard the infamous, Hanna family “brick joke”. I loved to find topical humor for Kathleen, but with her high standards, which applied to humor as well, only the exceptional was deliverable! Kathleen’s relationships with her coterie of loyal friends were most important to her, punctuated with visits to her childhood home to see her parents in Bronxville New York, and in time, in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as visits to her brother Jim and his wife’s Rosemary’s ever-growing family in Philadelphia. Kathleen commitment to relationships was no doubt partly inspired by her mother’s devotion to family unity demonstrated by way of her all-inclusive, entire family cruise invitations enjoyed by Kathleen’s brother Regis, and his wife Nancy’s children. For her family and close friends, never missing commemorating anyone’s birthday was a commandment Kathleen followed to a “t” and her birthday card to you, might just include a newspaper clipping which Kathleen knew would be compelling reading for the lucky recipient. Now that she is gone, for many, there is a vacuum, an enormous chasm, a stillness, a loss. I would like to ask everyone to bow your heads to observe just a moment of reflection, collectively, as a final gesture of gratitude to your higher power, for the experience of Kathleen’s life having touched your own. Now I would like everyone to raise their glass, in a final toast to Kathleen R. Hanna. Delivered circa 8:30 PM, on July 26, 2017, at Mulino a Vino Restaurant, 337 West 14th St. NYC, following a viewing at Redden’s Funeral Home, 325 West 14th St., NYC 10014, the latter being the site of the appearance of so many of Kathleen’s deep, abiding, diverse and yet highly compartmentalized friendships, a quirk manifested by the astonished expressions on the faces of so many participating in the eclectic gathering. A Mass of Christian Burial is be offered at 10:00 AM on Friday, August 18, 2017 at the Church of Saint Monica, 635 First Avenue, Berwyn, PA 19312, followed by interment.