Obituary for Katherine M. Behrens
Caterina “Kay” Mary Nizza Behrens left us for other worlds on January 24, 2021, just shy of her 100th birthday.
Kay was born on April 2, 1921, to Rocco and Giuseppina (“Josie”) Nizza and grew up in Brooklyn amidst a big, boisterous Italian family. When the Great Depression necessitated a move to the small fishing village of Lindenhurst, that big family followed them out to Long Island, as well; the rest making the drive out on weekends. She graduated early from New Utrecht High School, but was too young to enter nursing school. While waiting for her 18th birthday, she attended Brooklyn College for a year and a half, lest admissions at the nursing school think she was lazy--a word that would never describe her.
In three years, she earned a nursing degree at Mary Immaculate Hospital School of Nursing in Jamaica, NY. Working 12 hours a day (8 on the floor and 4 in the classroom), she was already a head floor nurse when she graduated in March 1942. While in nursing school, she met John "Jack" Behrens on a blind date; he proposed on their second date, and they were married a year later, Kay wooed by his wit and charisma. Together they built the little yellow house on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Albert Street, where they raised four beautiful, intelligent, and talented daughters. Kay pursued her nursing career, often working as a company or school nurse from September to June and then quitting so she could be home with her girls during the summer. As the main financial support for her family of six, she sometimes worked three jobs to make ends meet. One of those jobs was as the "hat-check girl" at the Knights of Columbus, where she sometimes took a daughter to help. In that little booth at the club, she emanated such warmth and charm, people would stop to say "hi" even when they didn't have a coat.
Kay was the neighborhood nurse, too. There was no 911 when she was a young mother, and if anyone in the neighborhood got sick or broke a bone or had a problem, they called Kay. Once, she visited a family every day for six months to change the bandages of all three children who were quarantined with severe cases of impetigo. Another child got her head stuck in the railing of her front porch. After all the dads in the neighborhood tried to figure out what to do and were about to cut up the railing, someone came and got Kay. She had that kid extricated in no time at all, railing intact. When the polio vaccine became available, Kay brought home doses and vaccinated all of the neighborhood kids.
As Kay's daughters grew, the whole family acted in local theater and musicals, led by Jack's beautiful bass. When her daughters started families of their own, they all came from far and wide for summer barbecues and holiday dinners at "Grandma's House." Kay was a wonderful cook, and the uninitiated were often unprepared for the series of delicious courses that would arrive at the table. Her sauce was "the Nectar of the Gods" and everyone went home with left-overs. Back in the day, those family meals were always followed with epic games of Fictionary and Charades or whatever other silliness her daughters concocted. Kay was a serious card player, skills honed in the summer kitchen behind her parents' house on Greene Avenue. And she loved to dance; her favorite was swing. She also loved doing the Peabody with Uncle Nick, the Electric Slide and the Macarena.
Kay was also a ferocious coupon clipper and often left the checkout with the clerk giving her money on double-coupon day. She loved entering radio contests and apparently won most that she entered (because Jack, an avid reader, knew all the answers). She was a huge fan of Johnny Carson and Judge Judy. She was a skilled cryptoquote solver; her drink of choice was seltzer or club soda, and she loved Mallomars.
Kay finished her nursing career as the nurse manager of the critical care unit at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip. Then she and Jack spent time traveling the country with her dear cousins Kay and Victor Clemente. She also enjoyed a long career as an election worker: "It was a good way to make extra Christmas money." She spent her retirement socializing at the local senior centers and volunteering doing blood pressure checks.
Kay was a trailblazer, a role model, a caretaker, and was good-hearted to the core. To know her was to love her, and everybody did.
She was preceded in death by her sister Lucy Nizza Perricone, her parents, her devoted husband, and her two elder daughters, Carol Ann Behrens Slay (Glenn) and Arlene Grace Behrens. She leaves behind her daughters Kathryn Mary Behrens (Greg Clark) and Jacqueline Joan Behrens Fiske (Joe), eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, and a large family of relatives and friends who will miss her dearly.
Kay was born on April 2, 1921, to Rocco and Giuseppina (“Josie”) Nizza and grew up in Brooklyn amidst a big, boisterous Italian family. When the Great Depression necessitated a move to the small fishing village of Lindenhurst, that big family followed them out to Long Island, as well; the rest making the drive out on weekends. She graduated early from New Utrecht High School, but was too young to enter nursing school. While waiting for her 18th birthday, she attended Brooklyn College for a year and a half, lest admissions at the nursing school think she was lazy--a word that would never describe her.
In three years, she earned a nursing degree at Mary Immaculate Hospital School of Nursing in Jamaica, NY. Working 12 hours a day (8 on the floor and 4 in the classroom), she was already a head floor nurse when she graduated in March 1942. While in nursing school, she met John "Jack" Behrens on a blind date; he proposed on their second date, and they were married a year later, Kay wooed by his wit and charisma. Together they built the little yellow house on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Albert Street, where they raised four beautiful, intelligent, and talented daughters. Kay pursued her nursing career, often working as a company or school nurse from September to June and then quitting so she could be home with her girls during the summer. As the main financial support for her family of six, she sometimes worked three jobs to make ends meet. One of those jobs was as the "hat-check girl" at the Knights of Columbus, where she sometimes took a daughter to help. In that little booth at the club, she emanated such warmth and charm, people would stop to say "hi" even when they didn't have a coat.
Kay was the neighborhood nurse, too. There was no 911 when she was a young mother, and if anyone in the neighborhood got sick or broke a bone or had a problem, they called Kay. Once, she visited a family every day for six months to change the bandages of all three children who were quarantined with severe cases of impetigo. Another child got her head stuck in the railing of her front porch. After all the dads in the neighborhood tried to figure out what to do and were about to cut up the railing, someone came and got Kay. She had that kid extricated in no time at all, railing intact. When the polio vaccine became available, Kay brought home doses and vaccinated all of the neighborhood kids.
As Kay's daughters grew, the whole family acted in local theater and musicals, led by Jack's beautiful bass. When her daughters started families of their own, they all came from far and wide for summer barbecues and holiday dinners at "Grandma's House." Kay was a wonderful cook, and the uninitiated were often unprepared for the series of delicious courses that would arrive at the table. Her sauce was "the Nectar of the Gods" and everyone went home with left-overs. Back in the day, those family meals were always followed with epic games of Fictionary and Charades or whatever other silliness her daughters concocted. Kay was a serious card player, skills honed in the summer kitchen behind her parents' house on Greene Avenue. And she loved to dance; her favorite was swing. She also loved doing the Peabody with Uncle Nick, the Electric Slide and the Macarena.
Kay was also a ferocious coupon clipper and often left the checkout with the clerk giving her money on double-coupon day. She loved entering radio contests and apparently won most that she entered (because Jack, an avid reader, knew all the answers). She was a huge fan of Johnny Carson and Judge Judy. She was a skilled cryptoquote solver; her drink of choice was seltzer or club soda, and she loved Mallomars.
Kay finished her nursing career as the nurse manager of the critical care unit at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip. Then she and Jack spent time traveling the country with her dear cousins Kay and Victor Clemente. She also enjoyed a long career as an election worker: "It was a good way to make extra Christmas money." She spent her retirement socializing at the local senior centers and volunteering doing blood pressure checks.
Kay was a trailblazer, a role model, a caretaker, and was good-hearted to the core. To know her was to love her, and everybody did.
She was preceded in death by her sister Lucy Nizza Perricone, her parents, her devoted husband, and her two elder daughters, Carol Ann Behrens Slay (Glenn) and Arlene Grace Behrens. She leaves behind her daughters Kathryn Mary Behrens (Greg Clark) and Jacqueline Joan Behrens Fiske (Joe), eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, and a large family of relatives and friends who will miss her dearly.