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Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958




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Kathleen Patricia Hagerty
Room Age Birthdate Grade B/G/T
211 13 4/24/45 8 Girl
Teacher
Sister Mary Helaine O'Neill, BVM
Address
1055 N Kedvale 
Family
Father: Leo P. Hagerty
Mother: Betty (Donnellan) Hagerty
Sister: Nancy Hagerty
Brother: Richard Hegerty
Brother: William Hagerty 
About Kathleen
Kathy's mom died in 1953. Kathy shares a gravestone with a brother named Joseph, who died in infancy. 
Interred: Queen of Heaven (Hillside, IL)
Memories of Kathleen
I remember meeting Kathy the very beginning of 8th grade - I only met her a short time before she died as we had always been in different classrooms. I believe she was a cheerleader with us for the OLA football team. We stopped at Moon's Restaurant for their notorious french fries. Her mother had died a few years back and she lived with her Dad. She was a very sweet girl and I liked her very much. I remember at that time I could tell she had asthma. The day of the fire I remember hearing that she was one of the first people the television station announced that had died.
    -- (Rosemary (Pisani) Bieker, Friend)
Kathy only lived a block down the street from me. I lived at 1136 N.Kedvale. She was in and out of our house on a fairly regular basis. My dad loved to tease with her. He had a pet name for her. We rolled up the carpeting in our living room to learn dance steps to the latest music. Our house was a meeting place for many of the kids in the neighborhood. Kathy always had a smile.
    -- (Anonymous, Friend)
We lived downstairs from Nancy, Kathleen, Richard & Billy. The Hagertys were connected through relatives with the McCarthy family. Kathleen taught me how to jump rope. I was much younger and remember their family with great heartfelt admiration. When visiting relatives who have passed and lay in rest at Queen Of Heaven, I stop at the ANGELS MEMORIAL first. I have kept their memory alive and will for my time on earth. Cares & prayers to all family & friends of the Angels.

We used to draw on the sidewalk with coal chips that heated the house. Our fathers use to treat us to Jimmy's hot dogs & fries at Pulaski & Grand. We lived at Kedvale & Iowa, in the second house next to the Mastorisis & the Morans, across the street from the KINSELLA family. Mrs. Kinsella cut hair for all the kids on the block. Their son became a priest from Our Lady of Angels. We moved to St. Williams Parish west of.
    -- (E.M. McCarhty Dudasik, Neighbor)


I am named in part after Kathleen. Kathleen is my first name. My mother, aunt and uncle lived in the same building as "little Kathy Hagerty," as my mother refers to her. She was a dear friend of my Aunt Elaine, who, had my mother's family not moved from Kedvale, would have been at school at Our Lady of the Angels on that horrific day. I have heard of this tragedy for years. My grandfather being a Chicago Fireman, I can only imagine the heartache he felt that day. "Little Kathy Hagerty" spent many hours at my mother's home and is always described as a sweet, life-loving and adventurous little girl. Not afraid of dirt or fun! I was born here in 1963 but moved to TX in 1967. I lost my own child, John, in a sudden and tragic event and on my first trip to the city of my birth, not the suburbs I so often visited as a child, felt I must comment. Being in the city makes it all real, and "Little Kathy Hagerty," a real, beautiful child gone too soon. God Bless her, the other children and nuns who perished that day, all who tried and risked so much to save them and perhaps most important, because I KNOW, all who were forced to go on.
    -- (Kathleen Wollin Pluchinsky, Neighbor)