Kay Corkery Remembered as Woman of Quieting Influence

Catherine Y. "Kay" Corkery

Catherine Y. "Kay" Corkery, a career registered nurse whose serenity and composure proved invaluable to her staff, patients and their families during dire moments of strife and uncertainty, died Jan. 3 at the home of her daughter, Kerry, in Erie, Pa. She was 75.

Mrs. Corkery was the mother of Kevin Corkery, husband of Sarah Fieg Corkery.  They and their seven children returned by auto to West Oneonta this weekend from a 600-mile round trip to Western N.Y. for the funeral.

Having lost her husband Jerry Corkery less than a year ago, Mrs. Corkery had been recently diagnosed with cancer. Until earlier this year Kay and Jerry, who had been married for more than 45 years, had been living in retirement in Pittsburgh.  Kay not long ago visited Sarah and Kevin at their home in West Oneonta, with her illness entirely unforeseen.

Her loss came as a shock not only to her family but to her many colleagues and friends at Women's Christian Association hospital in Jamestown, where she retired nearly a dozen years ago.  There she was remembered as a woman of exceptional ability who often became the tranquil center of whirling tempests of worry and doubt that commonly abound among the ailing and infirm during the most challenging and difficult moments of their lives.

Dan Tyler, administrative nurse and a member of the WCA staff for 29 years, likened her to a benign parental authority among junior, less experienced staff.

"She was like a mother," Mr. Tyler said.  "...She was very caring and very special, with a soothing voice and calming influence.  She was one who would go the extra mile, with a great deal of pride and conscientiousness in her work."

A Jamestown native, Mrs. Corkery was a 1955 graduate of Jamestown High School and a 1958 graduate of Mercy School of Nursing in Buffalo.  She formerly was on the nursing staff at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo and at Rusk Institute of Spinal Rehabilitation in New York City.

At the WCA in Jamestown, Mr. Tyler explained Kay that often worked the 3-11 p.m .shift, a duty schedule often marked by the inescapable necessity of solemn decision-making involving choices of mortality.  Mastering the circumstances, she held the position of supervisor of nurses when she retired in 1999.

"She was well loved," Mr. Tyler said. "We were happy that we had her when she was here, and sad when she left."

After being given the last rites about 72 hours before her passing, Kay spent her final hours without discomfort or complaint, much as it was for her patients, with her help, over the years.

Maren, Colette, Grace, Karoline, Frances, Seamus and Sean Corkery, all of West Oneonta, are among 12 surviving grandchildren, in addition to Kevin's siblings, Kerry and Todd.