Catherine Duncan Obituary

On Friday, October 4, 2024, the world lost a remarkable woman and mother, Catherine Nancy Lester Duncan. Our mother was a New Year baby, born January 3, 1936, to Catherine Albert Reid Lester and William Ronald Lester in Baltimore, Maryland.
Our mother always reflected on a happy childhood with her older brother Ron, embarking on many great adventures and moving to many places around the country for their father's job from Baltimore to Connecticut, Missouri, Virginia, and Oklahoma etc. Our mother attended four different high schools but remained well adjusted and excelled academically earning full scholarships to MacMurray College for her undergraduate education and Indiana University for her master's where she also met the love of her life and future husband, James Paul Duncan. After a brief career in higher education, our mother chose to devote her life to her husband and three kids and was a dedicated philanthropist. Mom never stopped.
She and our father provided a cherished childhood with hot meals at the dinner table every night, a ton of adventures, help with homework when we needed it, beautiful holidays, and most of all, unconditional love, support and friendship. She was a fierce protector and a devoted wife who supported my father throughout a very successful career in higher education. Mom always had an endless amount of sage advice about university business for my father.
She and Dad were a great team – a dynamic duo. My mother was a major contributor to my father's success. Mom had many talents that her kids would not learn about until snooping through an old trunk of mom's. In her younger years she not only received national academic recognition and awards, but we learned that her philanthropic pursuits began early, as did her brief art interest.
She had a trunk full of amazing drawings and paintings from her early years worthy of framing that are proudly displayed in her children's homes. Outside of being a driving force and the family matriarch, our mother was extremely compassionate and generous in her philanthropic pursuits. She had a kind word for everyone. She was also a very loving person with a keen wit and an easy smile.
Our mother was preceded in death by her loving husband of 50 years, James Paul Duncan and her parents Ronald and Catherine Lester. She is survived by her three children Kim Duncan Sadler and Kim's son James Cullen Sadler, daughter Mary Catherine De La Garza, her husband Cesar and sons Gabriel Cesar and Joshua Duncan De La Garza, and her son Bradley Paul Duncan, wife Dianna and son's Brandon James, Austin Paul and Dylan Bowden Duncan.
Our mother is also survived by her brother Ronald Lester and his wife Susan as well as many nieces and nephews.
Special thanks to Orchard Park Assisted Living and Memory Care of Kyle, Texas for your loving and compassionate care of our mother and to Resolution Hospice for all your care and direction.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer's Association
Or
AGE of Central Austin,