Mary Lou Considine, age 88, a retired Public Health Nurse, died of B cell Lymphoma on May 22, 2015 at Thomas Circle Nursing Home in Washington, DC.
Born in New Bedford, MA, November 10, 1926, daughter of Francis A. Considine and Helen M. Phelan, she attended Holy Family School in New Bedford for 12 years, graduating in 1944. She joined the USPHS Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II and after graduating from St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York City, she spent three years in Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains recuperating from pulmonary tuberculosis, an occupational hazard for hospital workers in the 1940s. Following a successful recovery, she returned to school and graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a major in Public Health.
After working for the Westchester County Health Department she moved to Washington, DC in 1956 to join the U.S. Public Health Service and worked in tuberculosis research for seventeen years. She also worked for the National Academy of Sciences and for the USPHS Bureau of Health Standards and Quality Assurance, and for the Bureau of Health Planning.
In retirement she studied Irish genealogy, visited the family’s ancestral lands and graveyards in Ireland, and researched and authored six volumes of family history. She had lived in Southwest Washington DC since 1961.
Survivors include a brother, David F. Considine of New Bedford; a cousin, Margaret Z. Considine of Great Neck, NY; and 13 nieces and nephews.
Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday June 3, 2015 at 10 AM at St. Lawrence Church, New Bedford. Burial will be in the Considine family lot in St. Mary's Cemetery. Visiting hours are omitted. Arrangements are by the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford. For online condolence book, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.