Catherine Arms Graves Prince

A lifelong resident of the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Catherine Prince was born on May 26, 1927, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father, Frederick Mortimer Graves, was a linguist who served as Executive Director of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Her mother, Jane Hamlin Everett, was the daughter of Herbert Edward Everett, the first-named professor of the History of Art and Architecture (in 1905), at the University of Pennsylvania. Catherine's family moved to the District of Columbia in 1927, and she's lived at five Georgetown addresses during the past eight decades.

Her friend, Elizabeth Jowaisas, confirmed that her December 24, 2021, death was caused by heart failure. Catherine and Elizabeth have been close friends since 2009 and even learned that they were both Mayflower descendants from Pilgrim Stephen Hopkins.

In 1936, when Catherine was nine, she spent over eight months traveling with her parents aboard the SS Ilsenstein to Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Kyiv, Russia, and China. They took the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Peking and spent Christmas in Shanghai. After that, they went to Nanjing and took a boat to Japan, stopping at Kyoto and Tokyo and through the Inland Sea before taking the Empress of China ship to Hawaii and home.

Mrs. Prince spent summers in Newburyport, MA, and winters visiting her Aunt Kätchen and Uncle Cyril Marshal in Key West, FL, where she learned to drive a car.

Catherine attended Mrs. Whitehead's Nursery School at 1524 28th Street NW, Kindergarten and 1st grade at the Town and Country School on Rodman Street NW. In 1932 she attended Beauvoir during its founding year and graduated from The National Cathedral School class of 1945. She went to Bryn Mawr College for two years before accompanying her parents on an extended trip to the Near East countries of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt.

After her return from the Near East, she worked at Ann's Kitchen, a Georgetown food and catering shop at the end of P Street on the northwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue. She met and helped hire her future husband, John Anderson Prince of Norfolk, VA. They married in 1955 at St. Mary's Chapel, Washington National Cathedral. John, who died in 2012, was a successful caterer and Georgetown real estate agent. Mr. Prince wrote a cooking column for Ladies Home Journal magazine in the 1960s. Illustrations of Mr. and Mrs. Prince's gracious entertaining at their home were featured in several of the magazine's issues.

Catherine Prince had synesthesia and saw letters, digits, and words in unique colors. She was also a talented and award-winning artist. She created decorative tiles and ceramics. The Ship of Fools author, Katherine Anne Porter, commissioned Catherine to create a tiled coffee table about her life. It's part of the University of Maryland's Katherine Anne Porter Room Special Collection.

Mrs. Prince was a member of Christ Church, Georgetown, the Georgetown Recorder Group, and a Mayflower descendant of two pilgrims, Stephen Hopkins and Edward Doty.

Catherine is survived by her niece, Anne Prince (Franklin, TN), first cousins Doris Graves Wilson (Morganton, NC) and Barbara Graves Starnes (Clinton, NY), as well as first-cousins-once-removed Robert Noyes (Liz) Pensacola, FL, Richard Noyes (Kathy) Tallahassee, FL, and Barb Noyes Stark (John) Saginaw, MI.

Funeral arrangements are with Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, Washington. A memorial service will be held at Christ Church, Georgetown, at a later date. Catherine Prince loved all animals, especially the fourteen pet cats she had throughout her life. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to City Wildlife Inc. (citywildlife.org).