Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Lelia Moncure “Mickey” Kehoe, 96, died on May 11, 2015, at home in Warrenton.
She was born April 17, 1919, in Bealeton, to the late John Carlisle and Mildred Moncure Kehoe.
After graduating from Bealeton High School, she entered Garfield Memorial Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1940. She volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps after Pearl Harbor was attacked and reported for duty at Fort Eustis in January 1942. She was assigned to the 51st Station Hospital and went overseas, landing at Casablanca, Morocco, on Christmas Eve 1942. After the North African campaign, she served with the 51st Station Hospital in Italy and France.
Following her World War II service, Lt. Col. Kehoe worked at McGuire Veterans Hospital in Richmond. In 1948, she was commissioned a captain in the Regular Army. During her Regular Army career, Lt. Col. Kehoe served as an operating room nurse and chief operating room nurse in Army hospitals throughout the U.S. and Germany. After her promotion to lieutenant colonel, she served as chief nurse of two Army hospitals and as chief nurse of the Eighth Army in Korea. Lt. Col. Kehoe's decorations include the Legion of Merit and the Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters.
She served on the Vestry of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Remington and was a member of the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, The Carter Society and the Army Nurse Corps Association. Lt. Col. Kehoe was a respected leader, a skilled professional and an American patriot who loved her family and her country. She will always have a place in the hearts of those who were close to her.
She was preceded in death by a sister, Beverley Brown; three brothers, Conway Kehoe and William Kehoe, who were killed in action in World War II, and Lt. Col. Powhatan Kehoe.
Survivors include two sisters, Dorothy Koval and Clara Cleland; a brother, Carter Kehoe, and many nieces and nephews.
A private burial will be at Aquia Episcopal Church Cemetery in Stafford.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Luke's Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 267, Remington, Va. 22734 or Aquia Episcopal Church, P. O. Box 275, Stafford, VA
Online condolences may be made at
www.moserfuneralhome.com