Laurie Kathleen Adams passed away in her sleep at Hospice House in Omaha, NE, on September 19, 2013. Laurie Kathleen McCaffrey Adams was born December 10, 1942, the oldest of 6 children of Kathleen Lenora Clare McCaffrey and Robert Kenneth Adams. She attended St. Margaret Mary's Elementary School, and went on to Duchesne Academy, graduating in 1961. She had spent 2 years at Duchesne College, when she was given the opportunity to become a Lay Missionary for the Society of the Sacred Heart in Songsim in Seoul, Korea. While there, Laurie taught in both the International School and the Korean School, and fell in love with this beautiful country and the people she met. She returned to Duchesne in 1966, and graduated in 1968 with a BA in English. After graduating, Laurie earned her BS in Elementary Education in the evening while she taught at St. Bernard's Elementary School and St. Philip Neri. She moved into social work for the next decade, in a number of different capacities, ultimately working with Foster Parents, and finally supervising and placing children in foster homes. The juvenile judge, seeing the need in 1986, asked Laurie to become the first Casa Coordinator in the State of Nebraska, and she built that into a highly regarded and very successful program over the following 10 years. Laurie has had many interests outside of her work. She loved to travel when the opportunity arose, and she loved gardening. She also became very interested in genealogy, as her father had done a great deal of work on the Adams side of the family. When her mother became ill, she decided it was time to explore the genealogy on the McCaffrey side, on which there was far less information. "I loved knowing that I was related to three presidents on the Adams side of my family, and a major cabinet member in the Clinton Administration on the McCaffrey line, my mother's side of the family". Over the years, she was in contact with many cousins and continued to keep in touch with them until her death. Laurie was a grateful member of AA, and was thankful for the principles of the program and for the many wonderful friendships she was blessed with over the years. She was a member from April 1, 1983 until her death.
CELEBRATION OF HER LIFE Sunday, November 17, 2013, at 11am at St. Martha's Episcopal Church in the Community Room downstairs, 780 Pinnacle Dr., Papillion, NE. For those who wish to, you can make donations to: Duchesne Academy to the Kathleen McCaffrey Adams Endowment Scholarship Fund; or to Alcoholics Anonymous Central Office.