Catherine Burke, 77, doting foster mother

For Catherine A. Burke, children were everything.

Burke, 77, who died Thursday at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore after a long illness, was a longtime foster mother, raising eight foster children in addition to her own five.

"Children were her life," recalled her eldest child, Mary Burke of Islip, an editorial assistant at Newsday. When Catherine Burke and her husband moved to Long Island in 1962, they followed a neighbor's suggestion that they become foster parents. "There were always children in the house," Mary Burke said. "Some of them have kept in touch all these years."

When Catherine Burke's children became parents, she doted on her grandchildren and attended their baseball games and other events. She became a baby-sitter for relatives, friends and friends of friends, according to Mary Burke.

And because she loved to knit and crochet, Catherine Burke made blankets and other garments for new babies of relatives and friends.

Catherine Crumlish was born in Brooklyn, where she graduated from St. Joseph's Commercial High School. She married David Burke in 1954, moved to Seaford and then to Islip five years ago.

She was a member of the Irish-American Society in Mineola and the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Massapequa.

In addition to her husband and daughter Mary, Catherine Burke is survived by her daughters and sons: Patricia Rogers of Islip, Kevin Burke of Massapequa Park, Michael Burke of Bellmore, and Christine Masi of Freeport; eight grandchildren; sister Ann Casey of Belle Harbor, Queens, and brothers Daniel Crumlish of Seaford and James Crumlish of Manhattan.

Visiting hours will be Monday and Tuesday, 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at Charles G. Schmitt Funeral Home in Seaford. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. William the Abbott Church in Seaford, followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Mercy Home, 243 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11215.