Brooklyn's Mulvaney Family Suffers Tragic Loss on Taconic Parkway

Photo via Kat Mulvaney/Instagram.

UPDATE: A friend of the family has started a GoFundMe campaign for the Mulvaneys. ”Donations will go to supporting them at this time and moving forward.”

Brooklyn’s widely known and loved Mulvaney family — a family of artists, musicians and performers — lost a mother and daughter in a horrific four-car crash on the Taconic Parkway in Yorktown, New York, on Saturday afternoon.

Ledell Mulvaney, 61, and Katherine Mulavaney (better known as Kat), 31, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

The driver of the 2001 Toyota in which they were traveling — Donald Mulvaney (better known as Don), 63, their husband and father — was transported to the hospital in critical condition.

The fourth member of the family, Devan Mulvaney, Kat’s brother, writes on Facebook on Monday that his dad is now in stable condition.

“Hello friends and family, thank you for all of your outreach of love and support during this difficult time. My Dad is stable and is being monitored closely by the best care possible. Please keep him and my family in your thoughts and prayers. I love you all very much! Will let everyone know about the funeral arrangements when everything is settled. God bless!”

The family’s Toyota, traveling southbound on the Taconic Parkway, was hit by an airborne BMW SUV that had crossed over the center meridian while traveling northbound, according to New York State Police.

After the BMW struck the Mulvaneys’ Toyota, another vehicle — a 2003 Acura — sideswiped the Toyota and crashed into the center guardrail.

A 2-year-old passenger in the BMW, identified as Leona Sinanovic from of the Bronx, was also killed in the crash.

Ledell Mulvaney was a performing arts program director at the International School of Brooklyn, a private nursery-through-8th grade campus in Carroll Gardens that provides French and Spanish language immersion.

In a ”spotlight” on Ledell posted to the school’s website, she is described as a former jazz singer, Fullbright scholar, anti-war activist and student at the Berklee School of Music.

Ledell says in the spotlight that she was the only female in all her classes at Berklee. “It was tough because I don’t think I was taken seriously,” she said.

Of her family, she said: “My daughter is a singer-songwriter, my son a filmmaker, and my husband Don is a drummer and pianist. We all compose music.”

Don also lists himself on Facebook as a music composer at the International School of Brooklyn.

UPDATE: Christina Hultholm, communications director at the International School of Brooklyn, sent the following statement to Patch on Monday afternoon.

“Ledell, Don, and Katherine have been engaged community members since Ledell joined ISB in September 2012. Ledell was a beloved teacher who led our music, band, and drama programs with creativity and vision; Don is a favorite after school piano teacher; and Katherine worked at ISB as well, in our after school program. It was not uncommon to see the three of them working together during ISB’s performances. Ledell was a passionate teacher and a caring friend, and all three are incredibly kind, talented musicians who shared their exceptional gifts with our students. This is a tremendous loss to our community; we are deeply saddened and still processing this tragic news.”

Kat Mulvaney, a Berklee alumna like her mom, performed as a singer-songwriter and taught as a dance teacher in different venues across Brooklyn. She had recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for her latest album. Below is a live performance she shot for the campaign — with her father Don on piano.

After the campaign had finished, Kat thanked her ”amazingly supportive parents,” her “amazing and wonderful brother” and her “Park Slope Brooklyn Family,” among others, for their support.

According to her social-media history, Kat was a fierce advocate for various social-justice movements, including Black Lives Matter and the LGBT fight for equality.

“Man, we still have so much work to do,” she wrote on Facebook last November. “To all my beautiful black and brown brothers and sisters out there, this white chocolate woman loves you and I am praying that we all get to the next level together.”

Kat’s most recent Instagram post, uploaded one week ago, shows her mother Ledell packing up a CD collection in her Brooklyn home. “My parents are moving,” Kat wrote.

On Monday, her friends left messages of shock and mourning beneath the photo. “This is tragic,” one friend wrote. “I wish we had caught up that day in Ditmas.”

Wrote another: ”I love you so much Kat. RIP.”

The Hour, a local newspaper in Norwalk, Conn., where the Mulvaneys used to live, reports that townspeople will hold a vigil for Ledell and Kat at the First Congregational Church of Norwalk on Monday night at 7 p.m.

“Ledell and Katherine were just such wonderful people and we’ll miss them,” Nate Yordon, moderator at the church, tells the paper. “And we lift up Don with prayers.”

According to the Hour, the Mulvaneys’ Toyota was hit as they were heading back from a high-school summer-camp musical they direct every year in Connecticut.

The Mulvaneys were the directors of God Show, a summer camp production of a musical play put on by high school summer campers at the Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, Conn. Under the guidance of the Mulvaneys, the campers wrote and performed a play. The campers performed this year’s God Show on Friday.

On Saturday, while driving home from the conference, tragedy struck.

If you’re a friend of the family who would like to share your memories, we’d be happy to post them in a followup story. Reach out: simone.wilson@patch.com.