Catherine D. Murphy | Court supervisor, 75

Catherine Dreger Murphy, 75, a retired supervisor with the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, died of emphysema Thursday at her daughter's home in Drexel Hill.

Mrs. Murphy lived in West and Southwest Philadelphia and Ridley Park before she moved in with her daughter in 2004, when her health began to fail.

Known as "Cass," Mrs. Murphy was born in Darby Borough and raised in West Philadelphia. She graduated from West Catholic High School for Girls in 1952.

For many years, Mrs. Murphy worked for the mental health department of the Family Court office at 1801 Vine St. She arranged court-appointed visitations and counseling for juvenile offenders.

She retired in her early 60s, and went to work as a receptionist for Louis Lipschutz, a psychiatrist in Havertown. She was still working three days a week at the time of her death.

Mrs. Murphy met her husband, John Donald Murphy, while she was in high school. They married in 1954. He died in 1979 of cardiac failure.

Surviving are a daughter, Margaret M. Rose; two brothers; and two grandchildren. Another daughter, Catherine M. Bradley, died in 2001.

Services were Monday. Interment was private.