Mary Olivia Kiely

Mary Olivia Kiely passed away on December 26, 2024, in her beloved City of Portland, Oregon at age 85.

Mary was born to Marguerite Goode Kiely and Eugene Francis Kiely on July 13, 1939, in the City of Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first of four living children from this marriage. Her siblings Regina Sheehan and Eugene F. Kiely, Jr. predeceased Mary. She is survived by sister Marguerite Kiely and her husband Ted Ashby of Staunton, VA , brother-in-law Patrick Sheehan of Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland and nieces Kathleen Kiely-Becchetti of Walpole, MA, Christina Kiely of Roanoke, VA and Mary Ellen Kiely of Fredericksburg, VA.

Mary was educated in parochial schools in the Boston area: St. Andrew’s Elementary School, Holy Trinity High School, and the Catherine Laboure’ School of Nursing. Nursing was both her career and her vocation, culminating in her time as the Nurse Manager of the Emergency Room at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Portland Oregon. She arrived in Portland after working in the research unit at the New York Hospital and living for a time in Greenwich Village. Once in Portland, her experience in NY with the newly evolving field of kidney dialysis proved critical in Portland’s pioneering development of home based dialysis for patients with chronic kidney disease. The success of this work called on her considerable clinical skills and her uncommon ability to relate to a wide variety of people in difficult situations. She moved from dialysis work in the community to emergency services work in the hospital and used her background as a fulcrum for providing empathetic skilled treatment to patients in her care. Mary had great respect for our country’s veterans and was proud to care for them.

Her retirement gave her time to travel and to attend and appreciate opera, which she loved. Mary was an avid sports fan. She enjoyed watching college and professional football, basketball and baseball. Despite living in Oregon, her admiration for the Boston Red Sox never wavered. Mary appreciated a good meal whether it was from a Michelin level restaurant or home cooked, provided that carrots, which Mary despised with great vigor, were not on the menu. Mary’s generous spirit supported various charitable organizations at home and around the globe. She was a patron and donor to Portland’s ever growing artistic community and participated in organizing events geared towards women.

Mary is greatly missed already and will forever be so by cherished family and friends. She was blessed with long lasting friendships of many but especially from David Huntley, René Lajoy, Melissa Stewart, Helene Vandeberg and the family of the late Mary Ann Elliott. A memorial for Mary will be held in Staunton, VA later this month.