Kathryn Venus (Kitty) Rosa
Kathryn Venus (Kitty) Rosa, age 92, peacefully passed into eternal life on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. Kitty was a native of Ridgefield and spoke fondly of her wonderful hometown. As a child, she loved walking along the Main St. and she especially enjoyed going to antiques auctions with her mother, Marion Travis Venus. Her dad, Jack, was one of nine children born to Mary and Charles Venus and he owned Venus Oil Co. as well as Limestone Service Station on Danbury Road. Kitty graduated from Ridgefield High School on East Ridge and was voted "best socializer" in her class. She also graduated from Merrill Business School and started working in the finance field. However, Kitty's love of business and antiques were soon to merge when she started the Village Trader in a 3000 square foot building on Prospect St. across from the movie theatre. Her husband, Paul, was soon recruited to attend auctions every week-end to make sure that the shop had a wide variety of antiques and collectibles. The Village Trader became a vibrant and fun place to shop.
In the mid -1960s Kitty joined with her two mentors, Francis Martin and Preston Bassett, to form a small group with the goal of purchasing the home of Vernon and Glenna Welsh which eventually came to be known as the Keeler Tavern Museum. Kitty's love of history was in full bloom at this incredible pre-Revolutionary home and she donned her period costume regularly as a tour guide for visitors who shared her enthusiasm for it's history. Fortunately, her preservation efforts did not stop there as she was appointed to the Historic District Commission in 1970 where she spent almost 40 years, many of them as chair, overseeing the properties on south Main St. and High Ridge Ave. Kitty and her husband, Paul, were honored in 1997 as Citizens of the Year by the Kiwanis Club. In 2000, she received the Harlan Griswold Award for Historic Preservation, one of Connecticut's highest civilian awards. However, there was still more work to be done and Kitty joined a group of Ridgefielders to save the Scott House on Catoonah Street by raising over half a million dollars to dismantle the historic building board by board. It was then reconstructed on Sunset Lane and opened in 2002 as the home of the Ridgefield Historical Society. Kitty also had a passion for the arts and next engaged in an ambitious project to launch Ridgefield's very own performing arts center, now called the Playhouse, to host topnotch entertainment and first run movies. Needless to say, Kitty was extremely proud of this living legacy, the culmination of all her efforts to make Ridgefield one of the finest communities in the land.