RED BANK, N.J. — On Dec. 5, 2025, Kathryn “Kay” Gamache passed away at her residence in Red Bank, N.J., with her daughters by her side.

Kay was born in Elizabeth, N.J., to the late Edward and Freda Brownell. She attended Hillside High School, Weequahic High School, and spent her senior year at Bristol High School after her family moved to Lincoln, Vt. She graduated on D-day, June 6, 1944. She signed up for the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, which provided her with a nursing education. She attended nursing school at Heaton Hospital in Montpelier, Vt. After graduating she attended basic training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, then served during the Korean War at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Valley Forge Army Hospital, and finally at the VA Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., with a rank of 1st Lieutenant.

She and her husband Larry raised their three children in Brooklyn until his untimely passing, which left her widowed at the age of 35 with three children under the age of 10.

Kay then moved to South Plainfield, N.J., to be near her brother and his family, where she continued to raise her children.

She became a school nurse in Greenbrook, N.J., to have similar hours to her children, as well as summers off with them.

During this time, she earned a B.A. degree from Trenton State College.

In 1979 she returned to her beloved Vermont, where she lived in East Middlebury. After she relocated to Vermont she worked at Porter Hospital in the OR for 25 years until her retirement.

Kay had many talents. She was an artist and a piano player. She was a piemaker extraordinaire! She loved sewing, knitting, and crocheting, and she sewed many of her daughters’ clothes, as well as for her grandchildren.

Kay moved back to New Jersey in 2005 to be closer to her daughters and grandchildren. She resided in Jackson, N.J., and finally in Red Bank, N.J., living at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor.

She was predeceased by her parents, her husband Lawrence, and her son Chip Gamache, as well as her brother and sister-in-law Edward and Marjorie Brownell. She is survived by her daughters and their husbands, Nicki and Al Colantoni and Laurie and Vic Kurliew, as well as six grandchildren and their spouses — Terri and Chris Melissinos, David and Danielle Colantoni, AJ and Erin Colantoni, Shelley and Justin King, Kristen and Mike Delucca, and Vic and Dana Kurliew. She also leaves behind 14 great-grandchildren — Cassie, Colin, Benny, Rylee, Joey, Sophia, Jaxon, Faith, Max, Leah, Olivia, Paige, Lincoln, and Penny. She also leaves behind two nieces, Karen Leimann and Mary Ann Osborne, and two nephews, Kevin Brownell and Fred Gamache.

There will be no services. ◊