Nati Horvath Krivatsy, PhD

Nati Horváth Krivátsy Nati died peacefully on March 29, 2009 in the home of her caregivers, her grandson Thomas Stern and his wife Laura Gazzano, after years of living with Alzheimer's Disease. Nati was born to Nati Sándy Horváth and Barna Horváth in Budapest, Hungary on August 26, 1925. She spent her childhood in Budapest and Szeged, where her father was a professor of International Law. Nati married Peter Krivátsy in December 1945 in war-torn Budapest. She earned a PhD in Art History from the University of Budapest and worked in the Szécsényi Library of the Hungarian Parliament. In 1956, after the failed Revolution, Nati, Peter and their two daughters escaped across the border from Communist controlled Hungary into Austria. They came to the United States sponsored by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and settled in the Washington, D.C. area. Nati's parents and her brother Béni were already established there, having fled from Hungary shortly after World War II. Although Nati knew virtually no English, she was hired just weeks after her arrival by the Folger Shakespeare Library where her knowledge of French, German, Latin and Classical Greek was of value in the catalogue department. Nati went to night school to learn English, and she earned a Master's Degree in Library Science from The Catholic University in Washington, D.C. During her 45 year career at the Folger, Nati rose to the rank of Reference Librarian, and she helped hundreds of scholars from around the world in their research of Elizabethan England. In 1992 Nati retired to Asheville. For several years she was a consultant to the library at the Biltmore Estate. She was also active in the ABCCM soup kitchen and in various Hungarian service projects. Nati is survived by two daughters, Susana K. O'Hara of Shrewsbury, MA and Krisztina Krivátsy-Stern of Asheville; six grandchildren, Thomas O'Hara of Rockledge, FL, Christina O'Hara of Johnson City, TN, William O'Hara of Arlington, VA., Andrew Stern of Woodstock, Ga., Thomas Stern of Asheville, and Stephen Stern of Salt Lake City, UT; and two great-grandchildren, Margaret and Nicholas Stern of Woodstock, GA. The Rev. Fr. John Schneider will celebrate the funeral Mass at St. Eugene Catholic Church on Saturday, April 18th at 9:30 a.m. Nati's remains will be interred at the Hungarian cemetery of Alba Regia in Berkley Springs, West Virginia with her husband, Peter, and in the Horváth family plot in Hingham, Massachusetts. May she rest in Peace!