Obituary of Martha Legg Katz

Martha Legg Katz (Wayne Independent) Martha Legg Katz, 85, sculptor and wife of Honesdale native William Emanuel Katz, died peacefully on September 14th at her home outside Boston. Martha was born in Binghamton NY, and graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She was working as a hospital social worker in Boston when she agreed to share the last taxi from Logan Airport with William, an MIT graduate, chemical engineer, and WWII veteran. They married in 1960. The daughter of landscape painter A.C. Legg, Martha studied art at the Museum of Fine Arts, The deCordova Museum School, the Art Institute of Boston and the Art New England Summer Workshops in Bennington. She also served for many years on the Board of Overseers at deCordova, as well as the visiting board of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick. As an artist, Martha produced pottery, printmaking, clay sculpture, woodcarving, and abstract assemblage. She showed in local galleries and won first-place awards from several local art associations, and in 1993, won the prestigious Copley Society prize for sculpture. Martha was also active as a PTA President, and as a Girl Scout leader and Cub Scout den mother. Her other passions included travel, reading, singing and playing the ukulele, and rooting for the Red Sox. Her greatest joys were her beloved husband William, her children Susan Katz Miller (Paul Miller) of Maryland, Martha Katz (Dennis Mccann) of Brooklyn, David Katz (Mimi Martin Katz) of St Helena CA, and James Katz (Chelsea Whittaker) of Greenwood Lake NY, and beloved grandchildren Aimee and Benjamin Miller, Charles and Annabelle Laserson, and William, Josephine and Mariella Katz. A private burial will be held in the Beth Israel Cemetery in Honesdale. A celebration of her life and work will be held at the Weston Community Center in Weston MA, on Saturday October 15th, at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Weston METCO Scholarship Fund, or the National Museum of Women in the Arts.