 KEAR, ELSIE Born in 1919 of Northern Italian emigrant parents, her first language, culture, and name was Italian. Elsie later shared her Italian heritage with her husband and her children. As a nursing student, she served in the US Cadet Nurse Corps during WWII. When she graduated from Massachusetts Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1946, Elsie began a 45 year career dedicated to helping others. Her areas of expertise included surgical nurse, obstetrics, premature infants, school nurse, hospital patients, ski patrol, international flight nurse, home hospice nursing, and flu shots. Elsie, the adventuress, traveled alone across the continent to begin her nursing career at Scripps La Jolla. She was amazed to see oranges actually growing on trees! During a rooftop sunbathing session, the nurses were astonished to experience their first earthquake! Elsie met and married Don Kear, a young sailor home on leave from the first (1947-1948) around-the-world cruise aboard the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge. This began a 30 year US Navy career / marriage of exciting travel and constant moves. Elsie relished each duty station. In Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Island Chain, Elsie collected and labeled wildflowers found hidden in the tundra. She cut whale vertebrae from washed-ashore carcasses for lamp bases. In Albuquerque, Elsie learned to snow ski at age 50. With her RN and expert black-diamond skiing skills, she was hired to rescue injured skiers as "ski patrol". Elsie combined her love of travel with nursing, traveling to the former USSR, Africa, China, and Japan to study surgery, alternative medicines, hospitals, and nursing. Elsie became an avid gardener in Albuquerque with over 25 rose bushes in her yard. An institution at the Albuquerque Garden Center, she put on symposia for the State Garden Clubs, earned her "Life Judge" credentials for the state fair, became a state certified "master gardener" and helped all her neighbors with pests, plants, and problems in the garden. Learning to paint in both oil and watercolors, Elsie preferred flowers as her subject of over 100 completed paintings. Elsie and her husband both loved music and dancing, going out on the boat, fishing (Elsie always caught the first or the biggest - much to Don's chagrin), camping in their RV, bowling, & passing on the activities they loved to their children Randy (Seattle) & Valerie (San Diego, CA). Elsie Kear will be remembered for her infectious laugh, blue eyes, big smile, friendliness, love of people, cheerful happy personality, plaid suits with matching hats, and energetic love of life. Funeral service will be held December 9th at French Mortuary on Wyoming at 10:00am. Elsie will be laid to rest with Don, her loving husband of 47 years, in the Santa Fe National Cemetery at 1:30pm.
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