CAMDEN — Longtime Camden resident Katherine Browning Migliorato passed away peacefully at Sussman House Hospice Care on Friday, May 15, following a brief stay at Pen Bay Hospital. She had turned 100 in February, an accomplishment that she celebrated in Portland in the company of her children and grandchildren.  

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The oldest of three sisters, Katherine was born on February 26, 1926 to Katherine (Wunder) and Henry Browning in The Bronx. When she was ten her family moved across the river to Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. She graduated from high school at sixteen as valedictorian, and attended New Jersey College for Women (renamed Douglass College in 1955 and merged into Rutgers University - New Brunswick in 2007). With a degree in political science, she was the first in her family to graduate from college.

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A child of the Great Depression, Katherine combined elegance with drive. In 1952 she married Norman Migliorato, another (Yonkers) NY-to-NJ (Bergenfield) transplant who had attended college after serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces. The money she earned working at AT&T in Newark helped them purchase their first home five years later, a three-bedroom split level in Mahwah, New Jersey. In 1959 Norman took a job at the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Geigy, which later became Ciba-Geigy and then Novartis, where he worked for over 25 years. 

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By 1964 Katherine had given birth to four children and the family had outgrown that home. They subsequently moved to homes with four and then five bedrooms, the latter in Mendham, New Jersey due to Norman’s workplace change as the pharmaceutical industry grew. All four children headed off great distances for college, freeing Katherine and Norman to retire to Camden in the early 1980s. 

Doing so was a long-held dream. They loved Camden and the friends they made. Their life as young retirees, living in a post-and-beam home they’d helped design and build which overlooked the ocean, was invigorating. 

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Reading, cooking, and sewing were among Katherine’s passions. She was a New Yorker subscriber for over 80 years, and would express concern when had fallen an issue or two behind in her reading. She read The New York Times thoroughly as well. Her insistence on the use of correct grammar was unyielding. In addition to good fiction borrowed from the Camden Public Library, she had great fondness for both opera and chocolate ice cream.

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Though they traveled widely, Katherine and Norman also loved it when their children, and then grandchildren (nine in total), would visit Camden.

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As the upkeep on the home became more burdensome, they moved to a Quarry Hill cottage on Applewood Lane, where the pace of life matched their ambitions. The visits continued, and children/grandchildren were always surprised by how many people (and restaurants) Katherine and Norman knew. Accents aside, they’d become Mainers.

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After Norman’s passing at 89 in 2014, Katherine opted to move into a Quarry Hill apartment. She was remarkably healthy and engaged to the end, fiercely proud of her children and grandchildren, with whom she talked frequently, and seldom shy about sharing her opinions and occasional despair about America’s path. 

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She is mourned and applauded by her children and grandchildren: Paul Migliorato and Ikuko Bogakiuchi of Honolulu, Hawaii and daughters Hana and Saki; Peter and Debora Migliorato of  Palm Beach, Florida and son Thiago; Lisa and Ian Gamble in Cambridge, Massachusetts and children Devon, Aldis, and Cianan; and Susan and Paul Giaconia of Charlotte, North Carolina and children Nicholas, Zachary, and Abigail.

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A final celebration of Katherine’s century on earth will be held Thursday, June 18, at 10 a.m., at Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

In lieu of flowers, her family asks that memorial donations be directed to the Camden Public Library or the Camden Area Christian Food Pantry (via a check to CACFP at PO Box 337, Camden, ME 04843 or the donation page).