Lucy S. (Rich) Keohan of Bedford died on Jan. 7, 2022. She was 93.
Born on Dec. 29, 1928 in Hyannis, Lucy was the daughter of the late Katherine (Ball) Rich and Willis Scott Rich.
She grew up in Wellfleet and attended the Wellfleet Consolidated School, graduating in 1948 in a class of 13. She earned a nursing degree at Mass. General Hospital, where she worked until her marriage in 1952 to Philip J. Keohan. Her son Tim said she kept her nursing license until she died, joking that she had to “just in case Phil throws me out.”
On a visit to Wellfleet while she was a nursing student, Lucy was summoned to help a local banker, Win Downs, who had had a heart attack. She rushed to him and nursed him through the night. More than 10 years later, Downs approved a loan for Lucy and Phil so they could buy their own Wellfleet home. It cost $6,000.
Lucy was proud of her family’s Outer Cape history. Her grandfather, Sheldon William Ball, had a home in Truro on the ocean called Ballston Heights; he later donated what is now Ballston Beach to the town. Lucy’s father was a Coast Guardsman stationed in Wellfleet. He walked the dunes watching for German boats during World War I. His name is on the World War I Memorial in Provincetown.
Lucy is survived by her husband, Philip J. Keohan, with whom she would have celebrated their 70th anniversary this summer; by daughters Susan L. Keohan and husband Todd Jonz of Vermont, Patricia A. Keohan Nucefora and husband William A. of Wellfleet; by sons Philip J. Keohan and wife Susan E. of Wellfleet, Timothy W. Keohan and partner Miranda Levy of Wellfleet, and Joseph D. Keohan and partner Roberto Portocarrera of Boston; and by 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A funeral Mass was to be celebrated in St. Michael’s Church in Bedford on Jan. 12. Burial will be on Jan. 13 at 1 p.m. in Oakdale Cemetery, Gross Hill Road in Wellfleet.
