Marie Killilea

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Marie Lyons Killilea (b. June 28, 1913, New York City - d. October 23, 1991, Larchmont, NY) is the mother of Karen Killilea and an American author, activist, and lobbyist for the rights of people with cerebral palsy. Her work culminated in the formation of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Westchester County. Later, she was a co-founder of the National United Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

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[edit] Marriage and children

She married James O'Rourke ("Jimmy") Killilea. They had five children: Marie, Kathryn Ann (d. in infancy), Karen Ann, James O'Rourke Jr. ("Rory"), and Kristin Rose. They also informally adopted Gloria Kyle, although this adoption was never finalized legally.

The family lived first in Rye, New York; later they moved to Larchmont, where they bought a house they christened "Sursum Corda" with the proceeds from Marie's first best-selling book.

Marie and Jimmy Killilea were devout Roman Catholics and raised their family in this faith. Marie also openly expressed her religious convictions in her books.

[edit] Education

She attended Mount St. Vincent Academy in Riverdale, New York and the Katharine Gibbs Business School.

[edit] Cancer

In 1969, she was told by her doctors that she had a recurrence of lung cancer and had only three months to live. On referral, she went to Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Philadelphia for treatment by Dr. Isaac Djerassi. He prescribed a totally new treatment: huge doses of Methotrexate, a powerful drug. In eight months, every trace of her cancer was gone [1].

She died in 1991, aged 78, presumably from natural causes.

[edit] Books

Marie wrote a biography of her daughter, Karen, which became a best seller in 1952. It detailed Karen's struggle to overcome the limitations of her cerebral palsy and her family's fight to help her lead a normal life. A sequel, With Love From Karen, was published in 1963. Both are still in print.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Sources

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