Angelo Catania’s daughter retires in California

Paula Catania, daughter of the late Angelo Catania, Class of 1943, retired from Martin Brinkerhoff Associates, where she was vice president, in Covina, California.

Paula recalls:

“My father and I went back to WV about four years ago (before he passed away) and he showed me the house on Thomas Street. I love the entire street.”

Paula Catania

The Olesky rental on Thomas Street was at the Church Street intersection. The Mangino family was next door and the Catania family was two houses away.

MBA – Martin Brinkerhoff Associates – has writers, producers, artists and editors who have produced award-winning entertainment spectacles in places like Los Angeles, Paris, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai to help businesses woo clients and to sell their products.

Its clients include Honda, Accura, Mitsubishi, Six Flags and Ringling Brothers.

It was Angelo who convinced his siblings and their father Joseph Catania to make the move from Thomas Street in Monongah to Covina, which he discovered and fell in love with during his Army Coast Artillery training days of World War II.

By then, Joe Catania was the widow of Theresa Casuccio Catania.

Alex Catania, Class of 1944; Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945; Josephine Catania, Class of 1952; and their father, Joseph, joined Angelo, Class of 1943, in the expedition to a new land and a new life. For Joe, it was a reminder of his native Italy.

Angelo married a Monongah girl, Pauline Layne Catania, who passed away in 2001. Paula was named for her mother, Pauline.

Mary is the widow of Arthur Heywood, who passed away in October 2015.

Angelo’s sister, Carmella Catania Allard, Class of 1947, wound up in San Antonio because her husband, Omer, still was in the Air Force when the Catania migration took place. He retired after a pair of decades in The Wild Sky Yonder branch.

Alex died in 2007, Josephine in 2009 and Carmella in 2017. 

Alex Catania sponsored the Confirmation of Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana near his daughters.

Angelo and Alex once owned and operated the Sinclair Station on U.S. 19 behind the Thomas Street homes’ row of garages and adjacent to the Lawrence and Regina Godby residence. They covered up our “ball field” to put up the building.

The Manginos also moved, to Philadelphia, in the 1950s.