Kathryn Hooper Paturzo, a world traveler and needlepoint master, died Wednesday at Blakehurst Life Care Community in Towson of complications from a recurrent abdominal infection. She was 94.
Mrs. Paturzo was born and raised in Clifton Park in East Baltimore and graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame. In 1931, she married Salvatore Anthony Paturzo, whom she had met when she was 13.
He helped develop his family's concrete block business, V. Paturzo Bros. & Sons. The company created lightweight concrete blocks used in the post-World War II construction boom.
The Paturzos raised their son, S. Victor Paturzo, in the Patterson Park area. In 1951, they moved to the Greystone mansion on Dulaney Valley Road in Towson.
Mrs. Paturzo and her husband toured the United States by car. The two also traveled the world together after their son grew up. Their son died in 1989 of bone cancer.
Her grandson, Michael Paturzo of Timonium, said she lived life to the fullest.
She drove a Jaguar XKE convertible. She walked on the Great Wall of China, rode elephants on a trip to Africa in the 1960s and rode a hot-air balloon in Germany in her 80s.
Mr. Paturzo said friends called his grandmother "the tour guide" because of her ability to recall restaurants and places to see from trips she had taken 20 years earlier.
Mrs. Paturzo was a voracious reader of books and newspapers. Her grandson said she read everything from "trash to autobiographies." She loved dining out and would try any restaurant within two months of its opening.
She volunteered with the Inner Wheel, the women's auxiliary of the Rotary Club, serving as president during the 1960s. She also created detailed works in needlepoint, which were displayed at the College of Notre Dame and in her friends' homes.
A devout Catholic who attended Immaculate Conception Church in Towson, Mrs. Paturzo made several pilgrimages to Israel. After her husband died in 1972, she traveled around the world once more with a close friend, Joseph Vowels. Mr. Vowels was killed in his Mount Vernon upholstery studio in 1998.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Saturday in the chapel at the College of Notre Dame.
In addition to her grandson, Mrs. Paturzo is survived by granddaughters Mary Ellen Voorhies of Catonsville and Janet Stamas of Timonium; and five great-grandchildren.