Teacher; Born November 28, 1917; Died June 3, 2009. Catherine McKinlay, who taught half the women and many of the men in Clydebank to cook, has died at the age of 91.
Catherine was a domestic science teacher in Clydebank all her working life - first at Our Holy Redeemer Secondary School and later at St Columba's High School.
Born in Doune, Perthshire, she was brought up in Dumbarton, where her father was the head gardener at Keil School in Kirktonhill. She was educated at Notre Dame High School, Clerkhill, and studied for a degree in domestic science in Glasgow.
Father Frank Wilson, who concelebrated her funeral Mass at St Patrick's Church in Dumbarton, said that over nearly 40 years' teaching, Catherine had passed on her cooking and other domestic skills to thousands of grateful Clydebank pupils.
He described Catherine as a woman of great practicality, integrity, common sense and courage who helped her father to bring food to many families whose homes had been destroyed in the Blitz.
During the Second World War, Catherine also helped to run the Girls' Cadet Corps, founded by Monsignor Hugh Kelly, from St Patrick's Church. She continued to live in Dumbarton during retirement. She had a long and happy life during most of which her health was good. However, she suffered serious and painful illness a few years before her death and went to live at Castleview Nursing Home in Dumbarton.
Father Wilson said: "Cathie's great spirit was not diminished. She was a fine teacher, a woman of strong faith and good character and a pillar of the church, yet someone with a loving and kindly heart, disposition and humour." By Bill Heaney
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