Nancy Padlon was born May 7, 1947, in New York, NY.

Nancy Padlon McKinley, 61 years, 10 months, 1 day, a Washington, D.C. resident, was fatally stabbed more than a dozen times early Sunday morning, March 8, 2009, by a burglar who panicked during his botched robbery attempt when he saw the light go off in her bedroom about 1 a.m., and she screamed after being startled when he poked her to wake her up, police said. Nancy was staying at her friend, Nancy Callahan's, house on Leisurely Lane in Bellport. Bellport is a quaint, tree-lined village on Long Island's south shore, about 65 miles east of Manhattan. The thief, Robert Shiavo, age 22, of Medford, was apprehended two days after her murder, and all the stolen money was recovered. He had burglarized a neighbor's unoccupied home, two doors down, in December, entering through the back door both times.

"All of this is such a horrible confluence of chance," said Kevin Barry, 62, a childhood friend who summers in Bellport and is a Key West, FL, resident. "It's inconceivable."

McKinley had just returned to the village that weekend, working on renovating the house she inherited from her late parents, Col. Joseph F. Padlon and Florence N. Padlon.

Nancy grew up in Bellport, graduating from Seton Hall High School in Patchogue in 1965, Barry said. She went to the College of New Rochelle, and then Simmons College in Boston, where she received a master's degree in library science. But it was Bellport, McKinley's hometown, that she loved best.

"She was very involved in Bellport," said Steve Schermeyer, 59, who lives next door to the family home on Broadview Avenue. "Even though she lived part of her life away, this was where her heart was."

A retired librarian, McKinley met her husband, Brunson McKinley, in Boston, Massachusetts, while working in her first job as a librarian at Fort Devens, a military base, where he was studying, Barry said. They married November 11, 1971 in New Rochelle, NY.

For the next two decades, starting in 1971, the McKinleys bounced (with intermediate stays in Washington, D.C., where they had a home) from posts in Rome, China, South Vietnam, London and Berlin, and finally Haiti, where they lived from 1986 to 1989.

As the wife of State Department Diplomat Brunson McKinley, the first U.S. Ambassador to Haiti after Duvalier's ouster, Nancy McKinley, 61, traveled the world, living in the former South Vietnam just before the United States pulled its troops out, in Beijing when President Richard Nixon opened up relations with China, and in Haiti following the ouster of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

As a State Department diplomat's wife, she excelled at charitable work and hosting events, friends said.

Those who knew her say she never spared an opinion. "It didn't matter what the topic was, she could talk about it," said sister-in-law Elizabeth McKinley Moore of Madison, NJ.

"She was one of my favorite people, a wonderful person," said Edward Spellacy, 74, Brunson McKinley's step-brother, of East Longmeadow, MA. "She enjoyed life. She was wonderful to talk with; she knew a lot about the world."

As the wife of a diplomat, Nancy McKinley traveled the world, living in former South Vietnam just before the United States pulled its troops out, in Beijing when President Richard Nixon opened up relations with China, and in Haiti following the ouster of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Nancy's husband was the first U.S. Ambassador to Haiti after Duvalier's ouster - but the vivacious woman held her own, always well-read, opinionated and thriving wherever she found herself.

Upon returning to D.C., McKinley got back into library work, while raising her two children. She worked to help libraries and further the cause of child literacy wherever she lived. From 1975 to 1978, she worked in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, according to family members. She was a librarian at Blessed Sacrament School in 1989. In 1998, she established a library consultancy partnership that worked with the Archdiocese of Washington and the District of Columbia. She worked as a librarian at National Presbyterian School from 1997 to 2000, at which time she retired.

Her interests ranged from literature and history to sailing and swimming and to conservation and the environment.

McKinley and her husband, who lives in Switzerland, had lived apart for many years. Brunson McKinley is co-chairman for the Association for International Mobility, a nonprofit organization that deals with refugee issues. Nancy McKinley remained passionate about literacy and raised funds for school literacy.

When the Rev. Boniface Ramsey, a pastor at St. Joseph's Church Yorkville in Manhattan, worked at a parish in Staten Island, McKinley surprised the school, St. Christopher's, with a large grant to buy books.

Yesterday Ramsey called the school to tell them the details of McKinley's death and asked that the children pray for her.

In addition to her son, Harley Joseph McKinley, of Washington, D.C., born in 1977, and husband, Brunson McKinley, Nancy was survived by a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth McKinley, of Washington, D.C., born in 1980, and a sister, Mary Padlon Kaiser, of Concord, Massachusetts. She remained exceptionally close to her children, her daughter-in-law, Kimberly Ballard McKinley, her sister and her sister's family, and her relatives on her husband's side.

Nancy's funeral was held Monday, March 16, 2009, in Washington, D.C. Her funeral mass took place at 10 a.m. in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, 1725 Rhode Island Ave. NW.

Family members planned a memorial service in Bellport in May 2009. Donations may be made to the Nature Conservancy or the Heart of America Foundation.

Nancy Padlon Mckinley