Obituary of Carole Jean Fitzgerald Kehoe, RN

Carole Jean Fitzgerald Kehoe, RN, PhD Carole Jean Fitzgerald Kehoe, RN, PhD, a resident of Olympia for the past eight years, died peacefully at home on July 18, 2011. Carole was born in New Britain, Connecticut on May 22, 1935 to John Joseph and Viola Helene (Demars) Fitzgerald. The family soon moved to Hartford where Carole was raised. Carole went on to the University of Connecticut where she earned her B.S.N. degree and became a registered nurse. Her first job in nursing was as a visiting public health nurse in Hartford. Carole later moved to Dallas, TX where she worked as the assistant supervising nurse for maternity at Parkland Hospital. Carole, however, aspired to teach nursing, so after a year in Dallas, she moved to San Francisco where she earned her M.S.N. degree from The University of California San Francisco before joining the nursing faculty of the University of Kansas for two years as an assistant professor. She then moved to Seattle to begin doctoral study at the University of Washington where she met her future husband Patrick Emmett Kehoe, who was a fellow graduate student. Later Carole would earn her Ph.D. from American University in Washington, DC. During the year prior to her marriage in August 1969, Carole was an assistant professor of nursing at Seattle University. The newly married couple then lived for two years in Houston, TX where Carole was an associate professor of nursing at Texas Women’s University’s Houston Campus before having her first child. A second child was born in New Haven, CT, where the family lived for two years. Their final career-related move was to Washington, DC, where Patrick joined the law school faculty at American University and Carole, now Dr. Kehoe, held consecutive nursing professorships at Catholic University of America and Georgetown University. Her teaching specialty was maternity nursing. Dr. Kehoe’s final job before retirement was in the education department of a community hospital where she organized and then managed a refresher course for nurses who had not been active in the field for some time and who sought to reactivate their professional licenses. Dr. Kehoe was the general editor and a contributing author of one book: The Cesarian Experience Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives for Nurses and is the author of several articles in her field. In addition to her husband Patrick, to whom she was married for almost 43 years, Carole is survived by a daughter Elisabeth C. Kehoe-Thompson, a son-in-law David Thompson and a grandson Jonathan, all of Grand Rapids, Michigan; and by a son Robert of Lacey. She is also survived by a brother, Robert D. Fitzgerald of Silver Spring, MD, two sisters, Lucille Vibberts of Rocky Hill, CT and Glenna Gstrein of Leesburg, VA, and by several nieces and nephews. Please leave memories of Carole or condolences for the family by clicking on "View Guestbook" below.