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.
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