Judith Kagan

Judith Kagan, 83, of Redding, CT, died peacefully at home on July 24, 2025. She was the loving wife of the late Harvey Harris Kagan.

Judy was born on March 12, 1942, in Lonsdale, RI, a cotton mill town where her paternal grandfather, who had emigrated from Blackpool, England, worked in the bleachery.

Judy’s parents, Garvin Morris and Helen (Buffinton) Morris, met while students at the Rhode Island School of Design. Helen’s family had been in Rhode Island for generations, tracing their roots back to the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams.

When Judy was one, her father enlisted in the Air Force to fight in World War II. He was away from his family for several years, flying a cargo jet in the South Pacific. When he returned from the war, he opened his own design studio, providing illustrations for advertisements. Judy’s three younger brothers, Garvin, Robert, and John, were born over the next several years, and the family moved to Cumberland, RI in 1953.

At Cumberland High School, Judy sang in the choir and performed in plays. She received an associate degree from Green Mountain College in Vermont in 1960.

After college, Judy worked as a “ski bum” at a resort in New Hampshire and held several receptionist positions before landing a job in the advertising department of Imperial Chemical Industries, a chemical company with an office in Providence, RI. It was there that she met Harvey Kagan.

Harvey and Judy were married in 1967 and built a house in Redding in 1969. There they raised two children, Sarah and Jacob Kagan. Judy was a stay-at-home mother for many years, and devoted herself to volunteering in the town, including for the local Garden Club and the Redding schools. She ran teacher appreciation lunches, taught kids about art and nature as a parent lecturer, hosted exchange students, and chaperoned many, many field trips. In her free time, she pursued numerous artistic endeavors, including ceramics, woodworking, sewing, and knitting. She loved reading mysteries and bird-watching, and was an extraordinarily talented, endlessly creative cook.

When her children were in college, Judy went back to work, as the assistant director of the Wooster Community Arts Center. There, she found a community of like-minded creative people that she loved. After retirement, she continued her work in the artistic community as a docent at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield.

In their 60s and 70s, Harvey and Judy together pursued their shared passions for gardening, attending opera and classical music performances, traveling, watching sports, and spending time with their beloved grandchildren, Leo and Scrap Kagan and Emma and Eli Brenner. Judy was a devoted grandmother who was never happier than when making art with her grandchildren and attending their sports and performing arts events.

Judy was predeceased by her parents and husband, and is survived by her brothers, her children, her son-in-law, Jason Brenner, and her grandchildren.

Family and friends will be received on Saturday, September 13, 2025, from 10:30 AM to 11 AM, at Kane Funeral Home, 25 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield, CT. This will be followed by a funeral service at 11 AM and an interment in Umpawaug Cemetery, Redding.

Contributions in Judy’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Ave., 16th Fl., New York, NY 10001, https://alzfdn.org/donate/

The funeral service will be available by livestream through the link here: Judith Kagan funeral service livestream or by clicking the "video play" button below the service information.

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