Irvine granddaughter passes

June Casagrande

Humility was always important to Kathryn Irvine Wheeler. Despite her

family’s position and her own decades of work with charity, she

always stressed keeping a low profile.

“My grandmother always told us that your name should never be in

the paper unless you were just born, you were getting married or you

died,” grandson Chris Connelly recalled.

So the occasion of Wheeler’s death on Saturday morning was an

opportunity to remember his grandmother as a remarkable family woman

who also worked tirelessly for charity. Her work for the James Irvine

Foundation, the Women’s Assistance League and for performing arts

organizations such as South Coast Repertory were just a few of the

ways Wheeler helped her community, Connelly said.

Wheeler, the granddaughter of Irvine Co. founder James Irvine Jr.,

died at her Corona del Mar home Saturday morning of complications

from pancreatic cancer. She was 83.

“To us, she was always just Oma,” said Connelly, who described his

grandmother as a woman who always put family first.

For example, even after she fell ill, “Katie,” as friends called

her, insisted on walking down the aisle at Connelly’s wedding in

July.

“She was already pretty much confined to a wheelchair or bed, but

my brother and I helped her down the aisle on foot,” he said. “She

wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Wheeler was born Feb. 27, 1920, just a few days before her mother

died of complications from childbirth. Grandfather James Irvine Jr.

raised her. Kathryn married Charles Stetson Wheeler III in 1941 and

raised a son and two daughters. Charles died in 1993.

Kathryn continued her work for the James Irvine Foundation until

1997, when she retired as honorary board member. In her honor, the

former family home in Irvine will be rebuilt as the Katie Wheeler

Branch of the Orange County Library.

Pacific View Mortuary in Corona del Mar will be holding a service

on a date to be announced.