Kathryn Ruth Hartmann
Kathryn Ruth Hartmann, of Cutchogue, passed away peacefully in her home on July 26, 2025 surrounded by her family after a long battle with cancer.
She is survived by her children from her first marriage John Sauer (Sarann), Marce Bush (Edward) and their children Kathryn and James; her daughter Victoria Hawkins (Benjamin) from her second marriage; and her husbands’ children who she loved as her own: Paul Hartmann (Jennifer) and their children Chase and Kaidyn, Danielle Piccoli (Joseph) and her children Lillyann Fogarty, Jillian Fogarty, Logan Piccoli and Joseph Piccoli, Jennifer Creta and her son Christopher, Chet Keeley and his daughters Madison, Alivia, Riley and Natalie, as well as her sisters, Jill Long (Mark), Elizabeth Hardy-Sauer, and Susan O’Handley (Jeff).
Kathryn, known as Kathy to most and Mammy to her vast extended family, graduated Southold High School in 1967. She married her high school sweetheart, Paul Sauer, and had three children with him. Her second husband, Frank Keeley, gave her another daughter and two more children to love, as well as a career in rescue as she became an EMT with him, and then followed her own path to become a paramedic, graduating the first paramedic class at Stony Brook University with her future husband, Richard Hartmann. Her marriage with Richard brought her two more children to love, and almost 30 years of love and laughter. They worked and volunteered as paramedics together until 2023, when they both stepped back due to their medical conditions. Over the many years they volunteered for Cutchogue Fire Department, they both touched so many lives. No one was calmer in an emergency, or more capable than Kathy, and she was recognized as Suffolk County Advanced Life Support Provider of the year in 2009.
She was an active member of St. Peter’s Lutheran church in Greenport, singing in the choir, the bell choir, and working on the church’s annual yard sale. One of her greatest joys was sharing that faith with others, and every summer she would take all of her grandchildren for a week and bring them to the church’s Vacation Bible School. Those weeks created a close bond among the grandchildren and they still talk about those memories often.
Kathy’s deep and unwavering love for her extended family earned her the cherished title of “matriarch.” She nurtured and celebrated this bond throughout her life, most memorably through the annual family reunion she and Richard hosted—Lobster Fest—held every second Saturday in August. Over the years, it became a treasured tradition that ensured family and friends gathered at least once a year. But truthfully, there was always a gathering at Mammy and Pop’s.
A mass of Christian burial was held at St. Peter’s Lutheran church on July 29 and she was laid to rest next to her husband Richard at New Bethany Cemetery in Mattituck. Donations can be made in her memory to Kathy’s son John Sauer’s non profit Population Services International. Please specify that the donation is for PSI’s global sanitation work or use this link: https://giving.psi.org/-/XUAQUJLJ, East End Hospice, Cutchogue Fire Department, or St. Peter’s Lutheran church in Greenport.
Paid post
