SALT LAKE CITY — Kathleen "Kay" Mavourneen Gleason O’Brien died April 9. At the time of her death she was living with her daughter, Karen Taylor, in Forth Worth, Texas. O’Brien was born Dec. 21, 1930, in Burlington, Vt., to Henry J. Gleason and Catherine H. Sullivan. Born premature, she had to fight to survive and no doubt then and there developed the rock hard determination that carried her through the years that followed. Orphaned early, she was educated by the Sisters of Mercy and in Vermont schools graduating in 1950. She married Kevin O’Brien in 1951, and while in the Air Force they moved to various places including Louisiana, Bermuda, France, and Ogden. They later separated. In Ogden O’Brien was a dining room manager at Andy’s Chuck Wagon, an interior design clerk at the Bon Marché, a clerk in the maternity ward at St. Benedict’s Hospital, a medical records clerk, and later retired as a receptionist from the Diocese of Salt Lake City in 2002. She is survived by her four children, Maureen Theresa (Warren) Ferree, Karen Jean (Chip) Taylor, Kevin Peter, and Michael Patrick (Vicki); brother, Jack Gleason, Denver, Colo.; nine grandchildren, Bonnie O’Brien, Brad Thorsted, Michael Thorsted, Erin O’Brien, Katie Taylor, Kater Taylor, Kaylin Taylor, Megan O’Brien, and Danny O’Brien; and many nieces, nephews, and friends. Memorial Masses were celebrated in both Fort Worth and Salt Lake City. O’Brien’s body was cremated and placed with her uncle, Father Thomas J. Leonard, and her mother in Burlington, Vt.
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