74
K
ATHERINE
A
NN
Y
AW
T
HOMSON
,
1917
–
2012
A July baby wouldn’t do at all—not when the
marriage license read January 30, 1917. Solution:
change the baby’s birth date. Result: for 79 years
Katherine Ann Yaw Thomson, (a.k.a. Kay) celebrated
her birthday on November 7. It was springtime in
1996, while touring Ireland that she asked for and
heard irrefutable proof that Katherine Ann Yaw, first
child of Ann Camille Malooly and Charles Russell Yaw
came into this world on July 24, 1917. Her reaction?
She clapped her hands with glee at discovering her
parents’ little secret. From that time forward Kay
strongly hinted to her family that her birthday should
be celebrated twice a year, in July and in November.
Kay Thomson loved a party.
Kay was the first of four children born in quick
succession to Charles and Ann Yaw. Then tragedy
struck. Left motherless at the tender ages of seven
and six and rejected by their father, Kay and her sister
Mary Ellen were taken in by their grandfather, Martin
J. Malooly, and their maiden aunt, Mary Malooly.