Kathleen O’Connell
Kathleen O’Connell
Kathleen M. Irwin O’Connell (age 84) of Goodyear, Ariz., passed away after a brief hospitalization while surrounded by her children on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in Goodyear. She was born in Newark, N.J., on Dec. 1, 1938, to the late John Oliver Irwin and Georgina Foster Irwin.
Kathleen’s parents arrived as immigrants from Ireland through Ellis Island. They married and raised Kathleen and her brothers, Foster and George, in West Orange, N.J. In 1956, she graduated from West Orange High School, where she had also met her future husband. Kathleen married Joseph M. O’Connell on Oct. 24, 1959 and remained with him until his passing on March 22, 1993.
The family moved to Chester, N.J., in 1964, and then to Cazenovia, N.Y., in 1987. After her husband’s passing, Kathleen moved to PebbleCreek in Goodyear, Ariz., in 2000.
Kathleen was a registered nurse and graduated from East Orange General Hospital RN program in 1958. She loved to work with children at the Matheny School in Peapack, N.J.
Kathleen was passionate about the arts especially the Fiber Arts of weaving, quilting, and knitting as well as painting. She loved to create art with her hands. She was very active in the PebbleCreek Quilters Guild as a mentor and contributor. She loved gardening, traveling, and visiting family and friends across the country and Ireland.
She was a devoted and loving mother and grandmother. She was so proud of her four grandchildren and boasted about them to anyone she met. Her spirit will live on in her children, grandchildren, and those that she touched. She will be missed by her family and friends.
Kathleen is survived by her children, Steven O’Connell, Susan O’Connell, and Linda O’Connell Rescigno and her beloved grandchildren Caitlin, Shannon, Megan, and Scod. She is also survived by her brother George Irwin.
A memorial service was held Oct. 21, 2023, at the First Congregational Church of Chester in New Jersey, where she was buried next to her husband.
If you would like to make a donation in her honor, the following charities were very dear to her heart or supported her in her final years: Biblica, The International Bible Society, Kare Bears of PebbleCreek, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Ministry in Phoenix, Ariz.