Catherine A. Kunkel, a homemaker who enjoyed reading, died Tuesday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air of complications from the flu. She was 96.
The daughter of Henry Povero, a grocery store owner, and Victoria Rizotto Povero, Catherine Albene Povero was born and raised in Burgettstown, Pa., where she graduated in 1936 from Union High School. She was her class valedictorian, family members said.
In 1938, she married Anthony H. Kunkel Jr., a metallurgical engineer, whose work took the couple on a worldwide odyssey. They spent 17 years in Peru and then moved to Rye, N.Y.
In 1959, they moved to Cape Arthur near Severna Park, where they lived until the late 1960s, when they moved to New Brunswick, Canada. Her husband then took a job with Parsons, a Los Angeles-based engineering, construction, technical and management services firm.
After his retirement in the late 1970s, the couple moved to Peach Bottom, Pa. After her husband's death in 1987, she moved to the rectory of St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in Pylesville, where her son is pastor.
Mrs. Kunkel enjoyed cooking and playing bridge.
"She loved reading novels until she came down with macular degeneration," said her son, the Rev. A. Henry Kunkel III.
A Mass of Christian burial for Mrs. Kunkel will be offered at 10 a.m. Saturday at her son's church, 1021 St. Mary's Road, Pylesville.
In addition to her son, Mrs. Kunkel is survived by a daughter, C. Karen Ahlstrom of Rosedale.