Catherine Hencmann had to give up skiing when she contracted polio at age 24, “but I’m sure she’s skiing now,” said her sister, Betty Murphy of Denver.
Hencmann, who died of leukemia May 20 at age 77, managed to fulfill most of her dreams despite the polio, said her daughter, Maureen Hencmann of Denver.
But life was sometimes a battle.
Catherine Hencmann’s husband, Gerald Hencmann, got polio several months before she did. The couple had their first son, Greg, and Catherine Hencmann was pregnant with their second child when she became ill.
But the couple went on to have a total of seven children before tragedy struck again. Gerald Hencmann had a fatal heart attack on his 40th birthday moments after receiving communion at church and returning to the pew.
“Catherine charged right on,” said Murphy, of Denver.
Hencmann not only reared her children but had part-time jobs and volunteered for myriad organizations: the March of Dimes, the Arthritis Foundation, the Colorado Society for the Prevention of Blindness and an adult literacy program. She also helped a group at her church that found housing for new immigrants.
Through the March of Dimes, Hencmann established the Gerald Hencmann Award for those who worked with polio. She and her husband received help from the March of Dimes, and later she made sure her children joined her in the annual Mothers’ March for the March of Dimes, going door to door to collect aid.
Murphy said her sister was “a marvelous manager of money.”
“A dollar for her always had more than 100 cents,” she said, laughing.
“Mom was a good organizer and instilled us with the work ethic,” said John Hencmann of Denver, Catherine’s son. “We all had jobs.”
Catherine Hencmann also was a time manager and took her kids to the mountains at every chance.
Once, the family came down from a particularly challenging pass and stopped at a filling station to ask what pass they had been on.
The clerk named area passes, including one that was closed.
“You wouldn’t have been on that one,” he said.
“But that’s the very one we had been on,” said Maureen Hencmann, laughing.
Catherine Hencmann said not long before she died that she had accomplished the things she wanted to do: sailing, traveling to Ireland and taking a cruise to Norway.
Catherine Murray was born in Denver on Oct. 13, 1928.
She graduated from Loretto Heights College and married Gerald Hencmann on Oct. 28, 1950.
In addition to her son, daughter and sister, she is survived by two other daughters: Kay Hencmann Crean of Wethersfield, Conn., and Meg Hencmann Deline; three other sons: Greg Hencmann of Denver, Brian Hencmann of Lancaster, Pa., and Bob Hencmann of Lakewood; 18 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; a brother, David Murray of Denver; and another sister, Adele Murray DeLine of Englewood.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
