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Kathleen McCarthy celebrates 90th birthday at Theta house

Almost 68 years after graduating from USC, Life Trustee Kathleen Leavey McCarthy returned to campus Sunday afternoon. The Trojan Marching Band serenaded her as part of a surprise 90th birthday celebration hosted at the house of her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta.

McCarthy has served on the Board of Trustees for 39 years and is chair of the Leavey Foundation, which provided the naming gifts for Leavey Library, McCarthy Quad and McCarthy Honors Residential College — the latter two are named after her.

In a speech to attendees, McCarthy’s son said she was “too wonderful for words” and gave her a sheet cake from Ralphs to close out the celebration. 

“I want to thank everybody for joining us today for my surprise, I hope you all were surprised too,” Kathleen McCarthy said after receiving the cake. “Nobody ever in a million years could have put it together, coming back to our college days. It’s so wonderful to share it with so many friends that were here with me at the same time, and for all my other new friends [from] all the years since then.”